Over 12000+ Objects floating around the earth

[RobertGraham]

Check it out, thats crazy: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/02/12/1792539.aspx?GT1=43001


This photo illustration of 12,000 space objects is a stunner. I keep looking for Waldo.

[Heathen]

Space debris?

Duh.

Or does it mean satellites?

[Bastinka]

Too low res for me to see anything at all.

[cheezdue]

I've heard about this on AOTS.

[Syuusuke]

Heh trash in space...they'll come down...eventually.

[LinkandKvel]

Heh trash in space...they'll come down...eventually.

Along with your cell phone reception.

[ultama121]

My science teacher showed my class this a few days ago. Hopefully they'll find some way to get rid of it...

[TheGhost]

This reminds me of that thing in Wall-E, right? Where the entire surface was junked with dud satellites and whatnot.

[Heathen]

Heh trash in space...they'll come down...eventually.
Uh, actually the pull of gravity and the directional momentum they reach orbit at balances out so theoretically they will orbit forever.

[Syuusuke]

I was thinking about that too...

but something will slam into it and pull it down...or away.

[RobertGraham]

This reminds me of that thing in Wall-E, right? Where the entire surface was junked with dud satellites and whatnot.haha, thats so ironic, because thats the first thing I thought of

[Heathen]

Thats not ironic, its merely coincidental.
http://www.homiesonfire.com/futurama/Bender.gif

[sdavis117]

Oh gawd, all of those sattelites (in scientific terms anything with mass orbiting the Earth is a sattelite).



I've heard about this on AOTS.

Screensavers was much better.

[Llama Juice]

I dunno about you guys... but... last time I checked a satellite is usually about the size of a school bus... if not smaller.... I doubt you'd be able to see any of those in any detail what-so-ever floating around the earth like that... let alone seeing anything more than a dot....

[RobertGraham]

Depending on the Satellite. Phone Satellites are usually the size of a Riding Lawnmower

[Llama Juice]

Exactly... I was using a large example because at this distance... the earth wouldn't look that cluttered

[jngrow]

haha, thats so ironic, because thats the first thing I thought of
That's not ironic, it is a coincidence. :eng101:

[RobertGraham]

Doh! I feel dumb now :(

[Mr Buckshot]

Uh, actually the pull of gravity and the directional momentum they reach orbit at balances out so theoretically they will orbit forever.

No they need to maintain a minimum velocity to stay in orbit. Some satellites really did fall out of orbit because they stopped moving. You know, Fc = mv^2/r, if v = 0, Fc = 0, and to be in orbit Fc must be greater than or equal to Fg. Major orbiting devices need to be re-boosted occasionally to prevent them from losing velocity.

[Syuusuke]

Doh! I feel dumb now :(

You need to listen to George Carlin's differential on irony and coincidence =D

[Rob Oplawar]

Yeah, people tend to picture near-earth-orbit space to be cluttered like those pictures depict, but think about it this way- at peak hours there are around 5000 aircraft above the US simultaneously, but when you look up the most you're going to see is 5 or 6, and they're all quite distant, and you can only see that many because they tend to cluster around major cities. Plus, those aircraft are all flying within a range of a few miles of altitude, while satellites are scattered over hundreds.

Even so, as we saw the other day, collisions are possible...

e: also, redundant title is redundant.

[kid908]

our trash problems are solved. govies buy rockets. put trash in. blast off to who knows where :D

[Warsaw]

No they need to maintain a minimum velocity to stay in orbit. Some satellites really did fall out of orbit because they stopped moving. You know, Fc = mv^2/r, if v = 0, Fc = 0, and to be in orbit Fc must be greater than or equal to Fg. Major orbiting devices need to be re-boosted occasionally to prevent them from losing velocity.

No only that, but a lot of these objects are still skimming the outermost layers of the atmosphere, creating friction, thus slowing them down.

[Limited]

Yup, theres tons of space debris. The highest risk that the Space flight's encounter is space debris, not take off, entering orbit or landing back to the ground, but space debris.

Theres so much of it and its becoming a huge problem.