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A synchronous orbit is an orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
 in which an orbiting body (usually a satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
) has a period equal to the average rotational period of the body being orbited (usually a planet), and in the same direction of rotation as that body.

tellite in a synchronous orbit that is both equatorial
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
 and circular
Circle

A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those point in a plane which are the same distance from a given point called the center....
 will appear to be suspended motionless above a point on the orbited planet's equator.






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A synchronous orbit is an orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
 in which an orbiting body (usually a satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
) has a period equal to the average rotational period of the body being orbited (usually a planet), and in the same direction of rotation as that body.

Properties

A satellite in a synchronous orbit that is both equatorial
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
 and circular
Circle

A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those point in a plane which are the same distance from a given point called the center....
 will appear to be suspended motionless above a point on the orbited planet's equator. However, a synchronous orbit need not be equatorial; nor circular. A body in a non-equatorial synchronous orbit will appear to oscillate north and south above a point on the planet's equator, while a body in an elliptical
Ellipse

In mathematics, an ellipse is the apparent shape of a circle viewed obliquely from outside it, as distinct from a hyperbola which is the shape seen from inside....
 orbit will appear to oscillate eastward and westward. As seen from the orbited body the combination of these two motions produces a figure-8 pattern called an analemma
Analemma

In astronomy, an analemma is a curve representing the angular offset of a celestial body from its mean position on the celestial sphere as viewed from another celestial body ....
.

Nomenclature

Like many orbital terms synchronous orbits take on special names depending on the body being orbited. The following are some of the more common names. A synchronous orbit about the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
 that is circular and lies in the equatorial plane is called a geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit

A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero....
. The more general case, when the orbit is inclined to the Earth's equator or is non-circular is called a geosynchronous orbit
Geosynchronous orbit

A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period matching the Earth's sidereal day rotation period. This synchronization means that for an observer at a fixed location on Earth, a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit returns to exactly the same place in the sky at exactly the same time each day....
. The corresponding terms for synchronous orbits around the planet Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 are areostationary
Areostationary orbit

An areostationary orbit is a circular areosynchronous orbit in the Mars equator about 17,000 km above the surface, any point on which revolves about Mars in the same direction and with the same orbital period as the Martian surface....
 and areosynchronous
Areosynchronous orbit

Areosynchronous orbits are class of synchronous orbits for artificial satellites around the planet Mars . As with all synchronous orbits, an areosynchronous orbit has an orbital period equal in length to Mars' sidereal day....
 orbits.

Examples

An astronomical example is Pluto
Pluto

Pluto , Minor planet names Pluto, is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body observed directly orbiting the Sun....
's moon Charon
Charon (moon)

'Charon' , discovered in 1978, is the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. Following the 2005 discovery of two other natural satellites of Pluto , Charon may also referred to as 'Pluto I'....
. Much more commonly synchronous orbits are employed by artificial satellites used for communication, such as geostationary satellites.

For natural satellites, which can attain a synchronous orbit only by tidally locking
Tidal locking

Tidal locking occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an Astronomical object always face another; for example, one side of the Earth's Moon always faces the Earth....
 their parent body, it always goes in hand with synchronous rotation
Synchronous rotation

In astronomy, synchronous rotation is a planetology term describing a body orbit another, where the orbiting body takes as long to rotate on its axis of rotation as it does to make one orbit; and therefore always keeps the same hemisphere pointed at the body it is orbiting....
 of the satellite. This is because the smaller body becomes tidally locked faster, and by the time a synchronous orbit is achieved, it has had a locked synchronous rotation for a long time already.

See also

  • Subsynchronous orbit
    Subsynchronous orbit

    A subsynchronous orbitis an orbit of a satellite that is nearer the planet than it would be if it were in synchronous orbit, i.e. the orbital period is less than the sidereal day of the planet....
  • Supersynchronous or Graveyard orbit
  • Synchronous rotation
    Synchronous rotation

    In astronomy, synchronous rotation is a planetology term describing a body orbit another, where the orbiting body takes as long to rotate on its axis of rotation as it does to make one orbit; and therefore always keeps the same hemisphere pointed at the body it is orbiting....
  • Sun-synchronous orbit
    Sun-synchronous orbit

    A sun-synchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit which combines altitude and inclination in such a way that an object on that orbit passes over any given point of the Earth's surface at the same local solar time....
  • List of orbits
    List of orbits

    The following is a list of types of Orbit s:...