An old rocket fuselage and a military satellite — a huge chunk of space junk that came from the Soviet Union — nearly collided with each other. Friday morning, in a semi-disruptive state that nearly demolished thousands of pieces of debris.
LeoLabs, a private company that tracks satellites and abandoned objects in low Earth orbit, observer Close collision in radar data. The company, which can track objects as small as 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter, operates three radar stations, two in the US and one in New Zealand.
The two objects moved towards each other at an altitude of 611 miles (984 kilometers) on Friday morning, January 27. [20 feet] with a margin of error of several tens of meters,” the company said in a statement menciak.
That’s very close, Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Smithsonian V Description Posted on Twitter. The SL-8 rocket body (NORAD ID 16511), particularly the second stage, has been in space since 1986, while the military satellite Cosmos 2361 (NORAD ID 25590), known as Parus, was launched into low Earth orbit in 1998. Collision between the two objects It produces thousands of new debris fragments that will remain in Earth’s orbit for decades.
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conjunction events in orbitBad environment“It lies between 590 and 652 miles (950 and 1,050 kilometers) above the surface, according to LeoLabs. This ribbon has it.”Huge potential for generating debrisIn low Earth orbit “due to a combination of breakup events and abandoned objects,” the company explained in a series of tweets. host About 160 SL-8 rocket objects have been launched along with about 160 payloads over the decades. leolab Say Some 1,400 engagements involving these rocket bodies have been conducted between June and September 2022.
Leolab Describe This type of possible collision between “two large abandoned objects” was described as a “worst-case scenario”, saying that it was “largely outside our control and would likely produce a ripple effect from a serious collision encounter”. In fact, a collision on this scale would almost certainly trigger the ongoing Kessler syndrome—a persistent accumulation of space debris that threatens to render parts of Earth’s orbit inaccessible.
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Near misses in space are becoming increasingly common, however The connection between the satellites is off or A cloud of debris threatens the International Space Station. Avoidance maneuvers are now a fixture for satellite operators, with SpaceX, as a clear example, having to perform them Performed more than 26,000 collision avoidance maneuvers for Starlink satellites From 1 December 2020 to 30 November 2022.
As well as focusing on collision avoidance, LeoLabs recommend Execute mitigation and debris handling efforts. It may also provide reasonable guidance regarding the removal of a satellite after it has been discontinued Introduction from sewage technique.
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