this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
50 points (89.1% liked)

World News

39110 readers
2699 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The international community is pushing for the approval of rigorous standards that track and limit the obsolete objects that can pass through the atmosphere and cause material damage on Earth

At dawn on Good Friday, a luminous trail crossed the sky of the Spanish Mediterranean coast until it disappeared behind the marine horizon. After the initial stupor, the military commanders in charge of supervising the area reported that it was a “grazing meteoroid” and not a ballistic missile or a Starlink satellite, as was initially thought. The scare brought to the fore the importance of controlling the space debris orbiting Earth.

According to the latest data from the European Space Agency (ESA), some 11,500 tons of objects launched into space are moving at high speed above our heads. The trail pollution is made up of one million pieces of waste, measuring between one and 10 centimeters, and 36,500 larger objects. But that’s only the space debris that’s registered, because not all space trash is cataloged and tracked by the databases that were created after the start of the space race (the ESA monitors about 35,150).

Space debris can be as large as a car or as small as a paint chip. “The real danger is the speed at which they move, more than 28,000 kilometers per hour [17,400 miles per hour], which turns them into real projectiles,” says Efrén Díaz, head of technology and space law at the Mas y Calvet Law Firm and general secretary of the Spanish Association of Aeronautical and Space Law (AEDAE). At this speed, the impact of a sphere measuring just over a centimeter could cause the same damage as a car traveling at 50 km/h.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Not to mention potentially rendering swaths of any orbital lane beyond LEO useless.