https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/114765857000929713 johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz - If you're the kind of person who follows me, you may know about the Kessler Syndrome.
That's when collisions between satellites and space junk create enough debris to cause more collisions, leading to a runaway chain reaction. This could render certain regions of near-Earth space unusable!
It's one of nature's ways of containing stupid civilizations, sort of like how inflammation contains infections. So don't be surprised:
A new study by Lewis and Kessler argues that we've hit the "runaway threshold" - the point where a chain reaction is expected - at nearly all altitudes between 520 and 1000 kilometers.
Below that, or above that, space could remain usable. So we could still get out and ruin other layers of space - or go to other planets and mess up those. Luckily, planned deployments of large satellite constellations... show morehttps://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/114765857000929713 johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz - If you're the kind of person who follows me, you may know about the Kessler Syndrome.
That's when collisions between satellites and space junk create enough debris to cause
more collisions, leading to a runaway chain reaction. This could render certain regions of near-Earth space unusable!
It's one of nature's ways of containing stupid civilizations, sort of like how inflammation contains infections. So don't be surprised:
A new study by Lewis and Kessler argues that we've hit the "runaway threshold" - the point where a chain reaction is expected - at nearly all altitudes between 520 and 1000 kilometers.
Below that, or above that, space could remain usable. So we could still get out and ruin other layers of space - or go to other planets and mess up those. Luckily, planned deployments of large satellite constellations like Starlink, Amazon's Project Kuiper, etc. will reduce the risk of such a breakout.
Yes, I'm joking - we can differ on whether the expansion of stupidity into the cosmos would be a good or bad thing compared to a mostly dead cosmos, and I don't really have an opinion on that. But the study is for real, and worth checking out:
• Hugh G. Lewis and Donald J. Kessler, Critical number of spacecraft in low Earth orbit: a new assessment of the stability of the orbital debris environment,
https://conference.sdo.esoc.esa.int/proceedings/sdc9/paper/305/SDC9-paper305.pdfThanks to @michael_w_busch for pointing this out.
(1/2)
Attached: 1 image
If you're the kind of person who follows me, you may know about the Kessler Syndrome.
That's when collisions between satellites and space junk create enough debris to cause *more* collisions, leading to a runaway chain reaction.
Mathstodon
