Ask an Explainer
Will satellites/moons travelling on the same orbit as the Moon, have the same speed as the moon, even if the mass or size of the satellite/moon is different than the Moon's?
Satellites and moons travelling in the same orbit as our Moon will have the same speed as the Moon, regardless of its mass or size. To understand why, we must first understand how orbits work.
According to Newton’s First Law, an object in motion will stay in motion, unless something pushes or pulls against it. Without gravity, an object orbiting the Earth would just move in a straight line. But with gravity, the object is pulled back toward the Earth. This causes it to constantly fall towards the Earth, but because it’s moving sideways fast enough, it always misses. Since the strength of the Earth’s gravity depends only on its mass and your distance away from it, satellites and moons will orbit at the same speed as our Moon, as long as they are the same distance away.
