according to nasa, there is loads of man-made trash floating in orbit around the earth. i've read in loads of science magazines and websites that even a paint flake travelling at a very high speed can hit a glass window of a spacecraft with the impact of a bullet. i've never really understood this. how can a paint flake get so much energy?
2007-01-24 05:39:22 · 4 answers · asked by amandac 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
17,500 MPH is really fast. Everything in low orbit is going that fast, and if two things going that fast but in different directions meet, they do so at many thousands of miles per hour. That is faster than a rifle bullet. The energy came from the rocket that launched the satellite into that orbit in the first place, possibly years earlier. Since there is no air in space, there is no friction, so the speed and energy from the launch never gets lost.
2007-01-24 05:46:14 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Energy is equal to mass times velocity. If a ball hits you at 1 mph, it doesn't hurt. If it hits you at 100 mph, ouch!
The good thing is that anything in the same orbit is moving at the same relative speed, but objects in different orbits can cross-- think of an object in polar orbit and another one in orbit around the equator. We're not usually talking about a head-on collision, but the potential exists.
Fortunately, with the vastness of space, even in the immediate area of Earth, there's relatively little manmade trash out there, but it's a growing problem.
2007-01-24 05:52:29 · answer #2 · answered by gamblin man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its all about Momentum. Mass x Velocity = Momentum = Kinetic Energy Transfer
Some of these tiny particles are travelling at such high speeds that the force is enough to do serious damage. If you think about it, small particles are even more dangerous since they have an easier time "cutting" through another object.
2007-01-24 05:46:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
hundreds, some alive and working, some wiped out and ineffective and ineffective, and a few spares waiting to go into place while needed. in case you need to take a photograph of the Earth and spot all the satellites around it, it might appear as if a swarm of bees around it. There are that many.
2016-12-12 19:20:14 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋