Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Sky ways are just as bad as the Highways



(AP Photo/ESA)
This image provided by the European Space Agency shows and artist impression of cataloged objects in low-Earth orbit viewed over the Equator. Scientists are keeping a close eye on orbital debris created when two communications satellites _ one American, the other Russian _ smashed into each other hundreds of miles above Siberia Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009. The collision was the first high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft, NASA officials said. The debris field shown in this image is an artist's impression based on actual data but not shown in their actual size or density.
MOSCOW - Debris from this week's satellite collision could circle Earth for up to 10,000 years, threatening many other satellites in an already-crowded area, Russia's Mission Control chief said Friday.

Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday's smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth - the busiest part of near-Earth space.

"800 kilometers is a very popular orbit which is used by Earth-tracking and communications satellites," Solovyov told reporters. "The clouds of debris pose a serious danger to them."

Solovyov told reporters even tiny fragments could pose a serious threat to spacecraft made of light alloys because both travel at such a high speed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Murphy is on a bus when he suddenly farts.

Luckily the music is very loud.

So every time he farts, he times it with the music.

When he starts making his way to the door to exit the bus,
everybody is throwing dagger looks at him and he suddenly realizes:

He's listening to his IPod!

Huevos Rancheros said...

Hey, Murphy, what do Jewish womem make for dinner?
Yep, reservations.

Moon Phase