Posted on 01/30/2019 7:46:18 PM PST by BenLurkin
A bizarre object orbiting Earth is reminding astronomers of an empty trash bag.
The unusual satellite is trekking around the planet in an almost absurd ellipse, dipping as close as 372.8 miles (600 kilometers) from the surface and then swinging out to a distance of 334,460 miles (538,261 km), or 1.4 times the average distance of the Earth to the moon.
According to Northolt Branch Observatories in London, the object is a light piece of material left over from a rocket launch. What it will do next is anyone's guess.
According to the observatories, the Haleakala (ATLAS-HKO) Observatory in Hawaii was the first to detect the object. The observatory is tasked with detecting near-Earth objects to warn of dangerous chunks that might impact the planet. This particular object is not dangerous, but it is weird.
Scientists dubbed it A10bMLz. According to the Northolt Branch Observatories, it's what is known as an "empty trash bag object." That means it is large enough to be spotted, but very light. Scientists at the London observatory calculated that A10bMLz is several meters in width, but weighs less than 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram).
Most likely, they wrote on the observatory Facebook page, the object is a bit of metallic foil flung into space during a rocket launch. It's not clear when A10bMLz entered orbit or what rocket took it spaceward.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Given that roughly 100 space launches are conducted annually, and that the lower stages of multi-stage rockets can be regarded as independent celestial bodies, and that such independent celestial bodies can also break up into multiple smaller bodies - I'm not surprised.
After all, some lower stages of rockets have entered into stable orbits around the Sun.
Regards,
Plenty of aluminum, beryllium, copper and magnesium. Maybe not enough to make the trip though.
Just so long as there are NO plastic straws orbitin’ out da’ah.
The “causers” of the trash have to pay foe ir’s removal.
At least it’s not a straw.
The orbit also may be affected by solar wind and storms or electrical charges from the stream of particles that are trailing the Earth as it orbits the Sun, (similar to a comets tail - only not visible to us down here).
Seems clear to me- the new virtue signaling cause of the century - greater than saving puny old earth from the ravages of Man. Spacegreenies must save the solar system from senseless bits of garbage just in case there’s such a thing as cosmic turtles that might see such garbage as food.
Space trash bag? Probably named “Nancy” or “Sheila” or “Maxine” or “Elizabeth”. All qualify as space trash, space junk, or spaced out.
That’s the most plausible theory I think. Ever see a garbage bag stuck in the vacuum pocket behind a garbage truck going down the road? It will make big loops from and back to the truck.
At first they thought it was a London phone booth...
if they zoom in close, they’ll find it’s just a wrapper from a loaf of Wonder bread.
There are two primary methods for removing orbital junk. You can either pick it up, or deorbit it. Either way, you're going to be expending a fair amount of energy doing the job using traditional means. I would seriously doubt much of it is worth picking up, unless it's a complete satellite or something. Given that a lot of it is metallic, and therefor likely conductive, you might be able to push things about with electrical fields. That might enable you to deorbit smaller stuff from a distance.
It's still gonna be a huge and losing battle, since new junk gets put out there with most every launch. Fortunately, most of that will just fall back to earth eventually anyway, but for stuff that actually manages to find a stable orbit, it will be a hazard until something is done with it.
I wonder how low the costs to get to orbit will have to get before some attempt to clean up the junkiest parts of LEO are feasable.
About time it showed up. This planet needs to be vaporized, stat.
Indeed.
I have an idea it is more likely to be “Freeze-Dried” though.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr
Swamp Gas, nothing to see here please move along.
Maybe we should zap it from orbit.
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