The moon is the earths only natural satellite
It takes the Earth a year to do this that is 365.25 days.
Satellite maps are as current as when they taken and depends on the satellite provider and/or source for the imagery. The base imagery, for example, in Google Earth and Google Maps is on average 3-5 years old. Weather imagery and overlays in Google Earth on the other hand are updated an hourly basis. Satellite imagery is Google Earth/Maps is incrementally updated usually about every 2-3 weeks in whatever area an update is available -- the entire globe isn't updated all at once. Likewise, Bing Maps updates its imagery once a month with typically more than 10TB of imagery, but its aerial and Bird's-Eye images for a particular location can sometimes be several years out-of-date.
Once a satellite is launched into orbit, the force of gravity tends to pull it toward the Earth. But by moving fast enough, it falls in a curved path and circles the Earth. So orbit is something like a controlled fall. If a satellite does not move fast enough, it will eventually spiral closer to the Earth and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. The same balance of gravity and speed keeps the moon and the International Space Station in orbit. This answer was found at the site of: http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/wonder_of_flight/iss.html
A geostationary satellite is an earth-orbiting satellite, placed at an altitude of approximately 35,800 kilometers (22,300 miles) directly over the equator, that revolves in the same direction the earth rotates (west to east). At this altitude, one orbit takes 24 hours, the same length of time as the earth requires to rotate once on its axis. The term geostationary comes from the fact that such a satellite appears nearly stationary in the sky as seen by a ground-based observer. In other words a satellite that orbits a specific part of the earth while the earth is rotating so it looks like the satellite doesn't move. For example if you put a satellite over over the geographic US it will stay over the US and turn with the earth around the axis without ever loosing site of the US.
There is no set inclination of a satellites orbit to the earth's equator. Once in space, the spin of the earth or where it's poles happen to be become irrelevant to the satellite. Many satellites like spy and weather satellites orbit over the two poles (north and south) while communication satellites are placed in orbit directly above the equator at a height that is synchronised with the earth's orbit. This way they stay permanently above the same place on the equator and do not APPEAR to move at all.
By orbiting the earth about once a month.
the time it takes the satellite to travel around the earth once
The earth's moon rotates on its axis in exactly the same period of time required for it to revolve around the earth once in its orbit ... 27.32 days.
If an artificial satellite can be positioned so that its orbit is exactly circular, and exactly over the equator, and takes exactly one sidereal day to orbit the earth, then an observer on the earth sees the satellite hang perfectly motionless in the sky. This is a big help when you want to receive radio or TV from the satellite, and you're using a high-gain 'dish' antenna that has to stay pointed at the satellite. If the satellite moved in the sky, then you would need some complicated machinery to keep it always pointed in the right direction. But if the satellite appears motionless in the sky, then your dish never has to move ... just set it once and forget it. If the popular TV satellites moved in the sky, there's no way that all those little dishes on the houses could be equipped to track the satellite and still be economically feasible.
one year.
If the satellite is in low orbit, it should take about one and a half hour to go once around the Earth.If the satellite is in low orbit, it should take about one and a half hour to go once around the Earth.If the satellite is in low orbit, it should take about one and a half hour to go once around the Earth.If the satellite is in low orbit, it should take about one and a half hour to go once around the Earth.
This is an excellent, very important question. The satellite is constantly moving in its orbit around the earth. You would think you'd have to keep moving the antenna on your house to follow it. The solution is to realize that the earth is also constantly moving ... it's rotating once every 23hours 56minutes. Then the trick is to control the orbit precisely enough so that the satellite orbit is exactly over the equator, and the satellite revolves at exactly the same rate as the earth rotates. If they can do that ... and they can ... then as far as anybody on earth can tell, the satellite looks like it's not moving at all, because it's always over the same exact point on the earth, and now you can point your little TV dish at it one time, and never have to move the antenna.
The Sun does not circle Earth. Earth circles around the Sun. It takes one year for Earth to revolve once around the Sun.
The larger the orbit, the longer the period of revolution. The Space Shuttle, when it is in orbit, revolves once around the earth in about 90 minutes. The moon ... and any other satellite at a distance of about a quarter million miles from earth ... takes about 27 days to revolve once around the earth.
The planet Earth rotates on its axis exactly once per day.
Staying at the "same point" (i.e., above the same location on Earth) is onlyimportant for a Geosynchronous satellite, which must occupy a very high orbit.Most satellites (and the International Space Station) are in lower orbits, whichmeans they orbit the Earth faster than it rotates, so they don't stay in thesame place.===================================Answer #1:Now to deal with the question . . .If the satellite is going to be used by non-technical people with little 'dishes'on the corner of their house or garage, it's important that they not need tomove their dish to follow the satellite across the sky. If people couldn't "setit and forget it", there would be no Dish network or Direct TV or any of theothers, because very few customers would be willing to do what it takes tokeep their dish tracking the satellite. Sure it could be automated, with amotorized mechanism that constantly steers the dish to follow the satellite.But that would cost 20 times what those dinky dishes cost now, and again,the operators would not "have a business". The only way that this wholescheme of satellite-direct-to-the-home can work is to make the satellitemotionless in the sky. The installer comes to your house, mounts the dish,'finds' the satellite, points the dish in that direction, and locks it permanentlyin that position. That's the only way the business model can work.
No planet goes around the Earth. The Moon, Earth's satellite orbits around the Earth, once ever 27 days and 7 hours.