I think it’s just a computer generated Depiction, an actual picture likely wouldn’t have the objects visible or would only just barely be visible because they are so small compared to the earth. This one is exaggerated so you can see them.
Comment on US issues first ever fine for space junk to Dish Network
yoz@aussie.zone 11 months ago
Is that a real pic? Like millions of satellites and junk just revolving around earth.
Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Plavatos@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
One of the biggest fears I tend to think of is Kessler Syndrome where one collision creates a shotgun blast of debris that increases the chances for more collisions (cascade effect). If you’ve seen the movie Gravity you get a great example of how it would go down.
Chailles@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I believe it’s just a depiction of it. Looking around some other similar pictures, there were some images where it showed all “space debris” larger than 1cm. So, it’s not quite the level of fields of metal floating around out there.
turmacar@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There are ~20,000 objects in orbit large enough to be tracked as hazards. Personally unclear if that includes active satellites, but that’s ‘only’ another ~10,000.
There are ~100,000 airline flights a day worldwide.
How crowded does the sky look with planes?
Yes space junk is a thing to be concerned about / regulate. But at the scales involved it’s basically negligible. We’re orders of magnitude away from any kind of cascade or locking ourselves out of orbit or any other doomsday scenario.
gr0nr@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Planes can also move out of the way of other planes, and have air traffic controllers directing them. Space junk doesn’t do that, and while I agree that space junk isn’t “crowding” space at this point in time. It does appear to be ever growing and it is just a matter of time before an important satellite is taken down due to neglecting this ever growing space junk problem.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Satellites do. They also are required to have plans to be raised to a graveyard orbit or to be de-orbited. This one failed to reach it’s graveyard orbit is the issue. It can be an issue if it gets out of hand, but it really isn’t for a long time. Space is big. By the time it is an issue, we’ll probably trivially be able to handle the cleanup (or we’re in another dark age).
zephyreks@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Space junk is highly deterministic, though. No atmosphere to fuck with.