This is an animation showing
geocentric satellite orbits, to scale with the Earth, at 3,600 times actual speed. The second-outermost (shown in grey) is a
geostationary orbit, 35,786 kilometres (22,236 miles) above Earth's
equator and following the
direction of
Earth's rotation, with an
orbital period matching the planet's
rotation period (a
geosynchronous orbit). An object in such an orbit will appear to occupy a fixed position in the sky. Some 300 kilometres (190 miles) farther away is the
graveyard orbit (brown), used for satellites at the end of their operational lives. Nearer to the Earth are the orbits of navigational satellites, such as
Galileo (turquoise),
BeiDou (beige),
GPS (blue) and
GLONASS (red), in
medium Earth orbits. Much closer to the planet, and within the inner
Van Allen belt, are satellites in
low Earth orbit, such as the
Iridium satellite constellation (purple), the
Hubble Space Telescope (green) and the
International Space Station (magenta).
Animation credit: Cmglee