Posted on 02/11/2009 1:39:00 PM PST by Names Ash Housewares
In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today.
The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites.
"They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time," said Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects."
One source said nearly 300 fragments were being tracked, but Johnson said it was not yet clear how much debris was generated.
"It's going to take a while," he said. "It's very, very difficult to discriminate all those objects when they're really close together. And so, over the next couple of days, we'll have a much better understanding. But it's at a minimum, I think we're talking many, many dozens, if not hundreds."
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
So now we have female satellites?
bttt
>>Because if each of those dots really were satellites to a 1:1 scale, then each satellite, considering that they are in orbit, would have to be larger than a couple of cities.<<
Exactly what I was thinking. People have no idea just how much empty space there is between those dots. If one were to spread them out on the planet I suspect there would be quite a few dozen miles between each piece of junk.
It’s not an everyday event, that’s for sure. not yet, anyway with all the stuff floating around out there.
It'd suck to be Iridium today -- at a minimum, the debris poses a direct risk to the rest of their constellation.
Guess the answer is how long was it defunct? Also, any posibility that an Iridium sat was a spy bird?
It’s projecting collisions for all the combinations of objects that’s the problem.
BUT a lot of that “Space Junk” and Debris is moving at around 14,000-28,000 mph, If a paint chip hits anything at that speed, its adios amigos!
In space no one can hear your wife dent the car.
Unless you're Howard Dean.
But is kind of odd that they would “happen” to collide over Russia... and in the most desolate section of Russia...
On the bright side, there are no curbs in space, so the satellites don't have to worry about parallel parking.
True. But that's like saying there's only 3 kids in rice-burners 'drifting' around at 50mph in the Walmart parking lot and you're laying out in the middle suntanning.
May be hundreds of yards between all those cars, and you, but how relaxed do you feel laying there?
And why did this get moved to chat?
Guess I won’t using my satellite phone for a while.
*No atmosphere, no sound, regardless of whether or not any ears or mikes are in the vicinity.*
I used to believe that, until I heard the planets sing:
Cassini/Saturn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFFGdTI9KeA
Earth sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoOg4US5f1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmubnNrDjwc
Voyager, Uranus sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fqE01YYWs
Neptune sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5jpl5E2dHM
space sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0lq6ttvh9M
Parks Telescope/neutron star XTE J1810-197 ‘heartbeats’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvRYRn6yrMk
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