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Hello u/Ok-Bug-6129, your submission "What would happen if you threw a frisbee in space? Would it just move in a straight line until caught?" has been removed from r/space because:

• Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

It would enter an orbit based on how much momentum it had. If you were able to get it to escape earth's atmosphere, it might be in orbit around Earth until it decayed from friction with the small amount of atmosphere that's up there.

If you managed to chuck it hard enough to escape Earth's gravity, then it would enter solar orbit and would have a similar orbital path as Earth and the two may eventually intercept again, and it would return to earth.

If you managed to escape solar gravity... quite a feat! And it would exit the solar system and travel until it encountered something to pull it into its gravity well.

In interstellar space it would go on forever until it is effected by gravity or hits something.

Depends where in space, and on your definition of a 'straight line'.

If you're in intergalactic space, yeah basically - although it would slowly get broken up by cosmic rays of various sorts.

If you're in LEO, it would end up in a very slightly different orbit to you - although in some ways an orbit is a type of straight line.

It probably wouldn't stay up there for too long, atmospheric drag would pull it down a lot faster than a human or a space station due to its higher surface area vs mass ratio - also it might get melted by sunlight.

In other areas in space, you'll have some blend of those effects (plus other smaller ones like solar wind) depending on local conditions.

space means vacuum. which means there is zero gravity. Since there is no force effecting the frisbee,it will keep on moving in a straight line

Newton's law: A body in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by on outside force.

This largely depends on where you are in space but there is always an outside force which is some body with gravity.

If you are near a significant body of some kind (moon, planet, star) the frisbee is going to be influenced by the gravity of that object. Technically its going to influenced by your own gravity but you can through it hard enough to overcome that. The frisbee is largely going to inherit your status since the energy you impart to it isn't enough to significantly change where it goes. On that large body, even an airless one its going to land maybe a long way away, but be pulled downward until it impacts because you cant toss it with enough velocity to orbit, or reach escape velocity.

If you are in orbit it will likely also remain in orbit around the same body. It retains the momentum you had plus whatever change in velocity you give it, which isn't likely enough to cause it to leave that orbit either to impact or to escape.

If you are in/near a small body like say a 1km asteroid you might be able to toss it with enough force to escape the body, but its going to go into orbit around the sun with roughly the same orbit as the body you started in/near.

If you are in deep space, lightyears from any body yes its going to go in a straight line as far as you can tell but you are likely in orbit around the center of the galaxy so it will be too. Its just going to be in a big circle one that takes 226 million years to complete.

Are you stood on a surface? Or just floating out there?