synchronous orbit

British  

noun

1. astronautics an orbit in which the orbital period of a satellite is identical to the spin period of the central body

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synchronous orbit Scientific  

1. An orbit of a satellite around a rotating body, such that one orbit is completed in the time it takes for the body to make one revolution on its own axis. From the viewpoint of the rotating body (such as Earth), a satellite in synchronous orbit appears to hover over a single position or else to sweep back and forth once per revolution along a single line in the sky. Synchronous orbit is sometimes used synonymously with geostationary orbit, although the two terms are identical only if the synchronous orbit is in the equatorial plane (when the satellite appears to hover motionless over the rotating body). Artificial satellites in synchronous orbits are commonly used in telecommunications, due to their relatively stable overhead position with respect to the Earth's surface.

2. Compare synchronous rotation

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Example Sentences

Ehud Behar, an astrophysicist at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, said that while putting data centers into a sun synchronous orbit would provide an abundance of solar energy, there are technological hurdles to be overcome, including how to cool the satellites while being exposed to constant sunlight.

From Los Angeles Times

So in May 2018 China launched a relay satellite called Queqiao to a gravitationally stable lunar synchronous orbit about 65,000 kilometers beyond the moon, where the gravity of both Earth and the moon keep the relay satellite moving in a halolike motion that ensures it is continuously in sight of both the lunar farside and Earth.

From Scientific American

Madisonian architecture infused with Newtonian genius: three separate, coequal branches locked in synchronous orbit by competing interests.

From The Wall Street Journal

At Hughes Aircraft Co. in California, however, three young engineers, Drs. Harold A. Rosen, Donald D. Williams and Thomas Hudspeth, were anxious to shoot for a higher target�nothing less than the 22,300-mile synchronous orbit conceived by Clarke back in 1945.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Kingsport next ordered Syncom to fire its hydrogen peroxide rocket to correct the slow eastward drift, and actually days will pass before Syncom's delicate guidance apparatus will jockey it into an exactly synchronous orbit.

From Time Magazine Archive