Falling space debris
by Jessica Woods
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Pic: Courtesy
eric-group.co.uk |
Space debris is a collection of defunct man-made objects in orbit
around Earth – old satellites, spent rocket stages and fragments from
disintegration, erosion and collisions. Debris can also affect
spacecraft launches.
According to NASA releases, 21,000 pieces of space debris measure
more than 3.9 inches. The orbiting speed of these objects signifies that
each of the almost 20,000 items in this size class can do a slight
damage. The 60 second video can be viewed above, or the full
visualization telling the full history of space junk can be viewed here.
Since we have been technologically capable, we have been littering
our cosmic backyard with nearly every mission into space that has
created new debris, either from the launch vehicles, objects falling off
satellites or unintended collisions.
The Kessler effect claims that there will be a time when the
densities of space debris are so high that they’ll begin causing
collisions –creating even more space debris. It also tracks objects the
size of a marble (but smaller than a softball) and has counted about
500,000 such things in space.
Although the initial years looked fast, in the year 2007, explosion
of a Chinese ballistic missile tests took place, which added 2,000 more
pieces to the space.
Two years later, two satellites collided, creating another 2000
pieces of space junk. Grey used data from Space-Track.org, a group that
monitors space debris, to build his model.
Scientists are working on ways to clear up space junk to avoid the
huge risk it poses to other spacecraft and satellites, such as a hole in
the solar array of the ISS in 2013.
Proposals such as blasting the debris out of orbit with some type of
a laser device, to an outer-space trash truck, with a robotic arm that
would collect the junk as it passes by for later disposal, have been
under consideration.
Recently, one such man made space chunk dubbed as “WTF” headed
towards Earth, but got burnt due to atmospheric friction before hitting
the Earth’s surface near Sri Lanka in Indian Ocean.
The objects in the visualization aren’t to scale, but are all larger
than an apple, “that is, an apple capable of ripping through a steel
wall at 17,000 miles per hour,” Bohannon writes.
Mercurynewsdaily.com
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