Our teacher told us today, that suppose a satellite is moving around the earth in a circular orbit of radius r

and if suddenly a external agents stops its motion. so that its kinetic energy becomes zero but its gravitational potential energy remains same

assume (there is no air friction or drag)

and that satellite starts to fall towards earth's surface it will follow an elliptical orbit in its motion towards earth

please tell me if this is correct because according to my intuition it should follow a straigh line trajectory towards earth 

Please help me with this. I am not very good in english so pardon me for any grammatical mistake in my question... Thank you