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Pocok5 t1_iuh6ono wrote

Reply to comment by breckenridgeback in ELI5: if Earth rotates so fast, why does it always look still from outer space? by ShesOver9k

From low orbit the rotation is basically unnoticeable. The ground moves under you at 400-something m/s but you yourself are flying by at 7000+ so you're just trying to spot the ground move by under you slightly slower than expected.

Of course at near GSO you'd observe the earth being almost completely motionless because you have almost the same rotation period over it as the surface (you'd get to watch the dusk/ dawn line move over the surface at the expected speed though)

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breckenridgeback t1_iui89cw wrote

> From low orbit the rotation is basically unnoticeable. The ground moves under you at 400-something m/s but you yourself are flying by at 7000+ so you're just trying to spot the ground move by under you slightly slower than expected.

Yes, all of which I already said in my own top-level comment. But that's not an issue of distance, really, it's an issue of Earth's mass - the same wouldn't be true of a proportional orbit around a tiny asteroid.

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