Earth's rings

[fredr123]

http://blogs.discovery.com/news_spac...-ringed-w.html

Kudos to the European Space Agency for finding a way to graphically unmask the cloud of debris circling Earth. Like many problems, this one grew slowly over time.



Space. The final frontier. Now that we've dun gone and messed up the Earth real good it looks like we've already started on its orbit.

Is this something I should be worried about or should I leave it to my children and grandchildren to figure out? The unilateral actions by China to increase the amount of detectable space junk kinda irritates me though.

[Canada 02]

several of them look like the Stanley Cup

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

several of them look like the Stanley Cup

lol, they do too, don't they?

In terms of worrying about it, do you mean maybe getting hit by one? Odds are most over time would see their orbit decay and burn up in the atmosphere. The people who really need to worry are those flying the shuttle and hanging out in the space station.

[ken0042]

A few key points that were mentioned in the comments section:

- the picture isn't to scale, not even close.
- the writer talks about Suitnik being space junk when it came back to earth within months of launch.

[BlackArcher101]

Ya, if this were to scale, you wouldn't see a thing. Your tune would be a lot different then.

[driveway]

Ha! Stupid space. Humans PWN!

[Hack&Lube]

There's an awesome potential theoretical situation proposed by scientists that would be a cataclysmic orbital event where if one bit of space debris or satellite hits another satellite, more more more satellites and debris would start hitting each other until there was an uncontrollable reaction where everything in orbit would be destroyed.

[ken0042]

Well, the one thing to keep in mind is that although those pieces of junk ar wizzing around at 10's of thousands of km/h, relative to other satellites and other pieces up there the speed is pretty low. Because there are a few standard orbit types out there, most objects are going similar speeds along similar paths.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

There's an awesome potential theoretical situation proposed by scientists that would be a cataclysmic orbital event where if one bit of space debris or satellite hits another satellite, more more more satellites and debris would start hitting each other until there was an uncontrollable reaction where everything in orbit would be destroyed.

OK, obviously I don't know all they know, but that sounds a little far fetched to me. I could see two colliding, but then wouldn't that pretty much disrupt their orbit enough to either fling them into space or have them crash to the earth? How would they continue flying around hitting more and more satellites?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

several of them look like the Stanley Cup

LOL, so true. The one near the bottom right is definitely a Stanley Cup.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Daradon

OK, obviously I don't know all they know, but that sounds a little far fetched to me. I could see two colliding, but then wouldn't that pretty much disrupt their orbit enough to either fling them into space or have them crash to the earth? How would they continue flying around hitting more and more satellites?

The thing is that geo-synchronous satellites can be moving at up to 36,000 KPH. Collisions between satelllites or any other space debris spawn even more debris and shrapnel moving at similar speeds. In space there is no friction and momentum and inertia keep things moving at high speeds unless their orbits decay and they burn up in the atmosphere. The possibility of a collision resulting in enough energy to escape orbit is unlikely. Any collisions can potentially spawn a lot of shrapnel that flies off in other directions and send things into non-standard orbits.

Google it. I think it's called Kessler's Syndrome or something like that, from some NASA paper.

Space Debris is actually a very serious issue. That's why everything is designed to be able to recover or burn up safely after it's fullfilled it's purpose. There's also a lot of research into ways to safely get rid of space debris like laser brooms. If you look at all the problems and tragedies with the space shuttle and how even small impacts by things as benign as foam can cause catostrophic destruction, any hit at high speeds (Shuttle travels at like 30,000 KPH) is very deadly and often Shuttles come back with many signs of impact with space debris.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by ken0042

A few key points that were mentioned in the comments section:

- the picture isn't to scale, not even close.

Oh man, it sure would be cool if it was to scale. It'd be like a smash-up derby going on up there 24/7.

Of something that big (say, the size of PEI) was orbiting the earth and it passed over in the middle of the day, would you be able to see it?

[Daradon]

Re: Hack&Lube

Ok, I'll google the topic and find out what I can, but I always pictured orbit as a very tenuous thing. I mean, for our probes and launches and stuff it requires specific calculations, and precise thrust or energy to get the right balance. I thought something like a collision (especially at those speeds) would pretty much guarantee any balance is thrown right out of whack, causing orbital escape, or more likely, a plumet into earth.

I get what you are saying about the debris, that could get cluttered in a hurry.

I'll look more into it, tell me if you see anything else wrong with my thinking here. I mean, I understand and pretty much already knew everything you told me in the explanation (re: speeds, inertia etc.), maybe orbit (or getting trapped in orbit) is just easier than I envision it. It just always struck me as a very perfect balance. Maybe that's where I'm getting stuck.