Question

why does satellite fall back to earth instead of keep orbiting around the earth?

Answer 1

there is a little friction with the gas particles out there

Answer 2

Right. Most satellites are in low earth orbit, so the friction is not trivial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit

Answer 3

It falls back to earth simply because of gravity, still the satellite is near to earth which deal the satellite more gravitational force than any other planet/star nearer to it. The lesser the gap the more gravitational force it will draw or Simply space-time Fabric.

Answer 4

eashmore r u free?

Answer 5

i hav some doubts

Answer 6

@JusticeAlpha, what you're saying isn't quite sufficient. If you had a satellite in perfect uniform circular motion about the earth, then the force of gravity is acting exactly as the centripetal force. If nothing else happened, the satellite would circle the earth for ever.

But something else does happen: friction acts.

Without that friction (or something else, such as a collision), the satellite would not fall to earth.

Hence the force of gravity by itself is a not a sufficient explanation. We need something else.

Answer 7

hehe i gonna ask sumthing silly, is this equation usable:



l = distance between the object from the surface of earth
r = radius of earth and g is gravity