Editing Synchronous orbit (section)

== Examples ==
An astronomical example is [[Pluto]]'s largest moon [[Charon (moon)|Charon]].<ref>{{cite journal |title = The Pluto-Charon system |author = S.A. Stern |year = 1992 |journal = Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics |volume = 30 |page = 190 |quote=Charon's orbit is (a) synchronous with Pluto's rotation and (b) highly inclined to the plane of the ecliptic. |bibcode=1992ARA&A..30..185S|doi = 10.1146/annurev.aa.30.090192.001153 }}</ref>
Much more commonly, synchronous orbits are employed by artificial satellites used for communication, such as [[geostationary satellites]].

For natural satellites, which can attain a synchronous orbit only by [[tidal locking|tidally locking]] their parent body, it always goes in hand with [[synchronous rotation]] of the satellite. This is because the smaller body becomes tidally locked faster, and by the time a synchronous orbit is achieved, it has had a locked synchronous rotation for a long time already.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Orbit !! Body's Mass (kg) !! Sidereal Rotation period !! Semi-major axis (km) !! Altitude
|-
| [[Geostationary orbit]] ([[Earth]]) || 5.97237×10<sup>24</sup> || 0.99726968 d || {{cvt|42,164|km}} || {{cvt|35,786|km}}
|-
| [[areostationary orbit]] ([[Mars]]) || 6.4171×10<sup>23</sup> || 88,642 s || {{cvt|20,428|km}} || {{cvt|17032|km}}
|-
| [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] stationary orbit || 9.3835×10<sup>20</sup> || 9.074170 h || {{cvt|1192|km}} || {{cvt|722|km}}
|-
| [[Pluto]] stationary orbit ||1.3025×10<sup>22</sup> || 6.38680 d|| {{cvt|18857|km}} || {{cvt|16480|km}}
|}