Escape velocity is the velocity needed to escape our gravity well. If you launch something straight up from Earth at less than escape velocity Earth’s gravity will immediately start accelerating it down, towards the center of Earth. At less than escape velocity this acceleration towards Earth will eventually overcome all of the initial velocity you gave the object and the object will fall back, eventually hitting with the same velocity you launched it with.
In your example of a meteor moseying into our gravity well at say 10 km/h Earth’s gravity will immediately start accelerating that meteor towards the center of the Earth. It will hit at escape velocity plus 10 km/h.
If we imagine that the meteor could pass straight through Earth, our gravity would start slowing the meteor down instead of speeding it up once it had passed through the center of the earth, but because it does so at escape velocity plus 10 km/h our gravity is not enough to bring it to a stop, just to slow it down enough for it to exit our gravity well once again going 10 km/h.
Not anything near Earth's orbit. Anything entering from outside and headed straight for Earth. Since escape velocity is the exact velocity Earth's gravity can cancel out for something headed straight away from Earth before it leaves our gravity well, it is also the velocity it can add to something headed straight for Earth. That makes sense since it is the exact same force. Most things that enter our gravity well do not pass straight through the center of it of course. Earth's gravity will still accelerate these things towards the center of the earth, but this will just curve their trajectories a bit for the most part.
Decaying orbits do not have a lot to do with escape velocity. That's as far as I understand it mostly the moon's gravity fucking things up. A Lagrange point is as you say a point in orbit where for example Earth and the moon cancel out eachother's gravity so your orbit will not decay. This is however still well within Earth's gravity well (which is huge). An orbit is just being in a gravity well and traveling at less than escape velocity.
No problem! If I see an opportunity to use my Kerbal Space Program addiction for something productive, I'm taking it. I just hope I'm not coming off as too insane.
That was just meant as a quick joke about how if I'm on the same sanity level as everyone else here I am clearly insane. Thank you for your concern comrade, but I'm actually having the time of my life rambling about orbital mechanics with everyone and this was not really meant to convey insecurity or fear. It might have been in bad taste, considering that people actually do share real problems and concerns here. In that case I'm sorry, otherwise don't worry!
I’ll do my best to explain.
Escape velocity is the velocity needed to escape our gravity well. If you launch something straight up from Earth at less than escape velocity Earth’s gravity will immediately start accelerating it down, towards the center of Earth. At less than escape velocity this acceleration towards Earth will eventually overcome all of the initial velocity you gave the object and the object will fall back, eventually hitting with the same velocity you launched it with.
In your example of a meteor moseying into our gravity well at say 10 km/h Earth’s gravity will immediately start accelerating that meteor towards the center of the Earth. It will hit at escape velocity plus 10 km/h.
If we imagine that the meteor could pass straight through Earth, our gravity would start slowing the meteor down instead of speeding it up once it had passed through the center of the earth, but because it does so at escape velocity plus 10 km/h our gravity is not enough to bring it to a stop, just to slow it down enough for it to exit our gravity well once again going 10 km/h.
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Not anything near Earth's orbit. Anything entering from outside and headed straight for Earth. Since escape velocity is the exact velocity Earth's gravity can cancel out for something headed straight away from Earth before it leaves our gravity well, it is also the velocity it can add to something headed straight for Earth. That makes sense since it is the exact same force. Most things that enter our gravity well do not pass straight through the center of it of course. Earth's gravity will still accelerate these things towards the center of the earth, but this will just curve their trajectories a bit for the most part.
Decaying orbits do not have a lot to do with escape velocity. That's as far as I understand it mostly the moon's gravity fucking things up. A Lagrange point is as you say a point in orbit where for example Earth and the moon cancel out eachother's gravity so your orbit will not decay. This is however still well within Earth's gravity well (which is huge). An orbit is just being in a gravity well and traveling at less than escape velocity.
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No problem! If I see an opportunity to use my Kerbal Space Program addiction for something productive, I'm taking it. I just hope I'm not coming off as too insane.
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Oh... Ok. Should I deal with that somehow?
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That was just meant as a quick joke about how if I'm on the same sanity level as everyone else here I am clearly insane. Thank you for your concern comrade, but I'm actually having the time of my life rambling about orbital mechanics with everyone and this was not really meant to convey insecurity or fear. It might have been in bad taste, considering that people actually do share real problems and concerns here. In that case I'm sorry, otherwise don't worry!
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