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As space debris increases, scientists are worried about collisions that could eventually clog up Earth’s orbit, posing a threat to astronauts, space missions and other satellites, according to NASA.
Moriba Kemessia Jah CorrFRSE (born 1971) is an American space scientist and aerospace engineer who describes himself as a "space environmentalist". [1] He specializes in orbit determination and prediction, especially as related to space situational awareness and space traffic monitoring.
Much of the debris will eventually re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, that process can take years. While it remains in space, it creates new problems and poses risks to space missions and ...
The scenario, in which space debris collides and creates more debris, is called Kessler Syndrome. Eventually, the proliferation could make Earth’s orbit too clogged for satellites to orbit ...
The fragments can then hit other objects, producing even more space debris: if a large enough collision or explosion were to occur, such as between a space station and a defunct satellite, or as the result of hostile actions in space, then the resulting debris cascade could make prospects for long-term viability of satellites in particular low ...
The 2009 satellite collision entirely obliterated both spacecraft and resulted in the creation of an estimated 1,000 new pieces of space debris larger than 10 cm (4 in) and many smaller ones. [2] There are other smaller bits of material in orbit around Earth that could also cause significant damage to satellites.
All of this debris floating around in space could lead to a theoretical scenario known as the Kessler Syndrome. Here's what to know about space junk, why it's a problem and what's being done about it.
To avoid excessive creation of artificial space debris, many – but not all – satellites launched to above-low-Earth-orbit are launched initially into elliptical orbits with perigees inside Earth's atmosphere so the orbit will quickly decay and the satellites then will be destroyed upon reentry into the atmosphere. Other methods are used for ...