Like when astronauts go to space, can they take a bag of small rocks, and hurl them at Earth, then, after a day or two, when the rocks enter the atmosphere, they burn up, and can be seen as a "meteor shower". Can this idea work? Why or why not?
2007-08-16 10:31:17 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Yes, it is possible to create a man-made meteor shower. The rocks really dont have to be very large at all. most "shooting stars" that you would normally see at night are no larger than grains of sand anyways. However, it is unlikely that an experiement like that would be performed. There are two main reasons for this. The first is cost. It costs over $10,000US per pound (0.45kg) to get into orbit. The second is the danger to other satellites (including manned space craft). If you just chuck a handful of rocks at the Earth from orbit, there is a probability that an object at a lower orbit may collide with a rock fragment one its way down.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
2007-08-16 10:55:36 · answer #1 · answered by ngc7331 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not by throwing rocks, no. If the space shuttle Columbia, or Skylab, had come down at night it might have made a meteor shower.
2007-08-16 12:30:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Small rocks will burn up long before they're visible at the surface. Now, if you hurled Rosie O'Donnell toward Earth, that would make a spectacular display.
2007-08-16 10:40:52 · answer #3 · answered by G 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
They do this on a regular basis, only instead of using rocks they use wasted rocket parts. One of the biggest so far was the russian Mir space station. It made some nice 'fireworks' when it was deorbited in 2001.
2007-08-16 10:47:40 · answer #4 · answered by frj 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
space junk does this all the time
2007-08-16 12:10:07 · answer #5 · answered by snow 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋