Thirty years ago, a Soviet satellite disintegrated in orbit about 1,400 kilometers above Earth, presumably after colliding with space debris. Astrophysicist and space debris expert Jonathan McDowell previously reported on Twitter that the Cosmos-2143 or Cosmos-2145 satellite had disintegrated on X. The incident underscores the precarious situation in Earth orbit, where ancient objects accumulated during more than 60 years of space exploration and use now pose a threat to new, still-operating satellites.

“Another Possible Orbital Collision Event: Seven Debris Objects Cataloged from a Defunct Soviet Communications Satellite Launched in 1991” – McDowell said in the post: At X, it was formerly known as Twitter. “The debris appears to be from Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145, two of the 8 Strela-1M satellites launched by the same rocket.”

Former Soviet satellites and used rocket stages dropped at altitudes above 500 miles (800 km) are a major concern for space sustainability researchers. These objects, floating too high to be destroyed due to the natural disruption of their orbits due to the dragging of Earth’s remaining atmosphere, have been involved in many events before.

In February 2009, a satellite named Cosmos 2251, cousin to the Cosmos 2143 and Cosmos 2145 spacecraft, collided with the operating satellite of the US telecommunications company Iridium at an altitude of 490 miles (789 kilometers) from Earth, creating a giant space cloud. bunk. This event, along with China’s 2007 anti-satellite missile test, is responsible for most of the space debris currently orbiting the Earth.

In January of this year, a dead Soviet spy satellite and a used Soviet rocket platform came within 20 feet (6 meters) of a cluttered region about 1,000 km above Earth. The complete collision of these two objects will result in the creation of thousands of new pieces of dangerous debris.

Researchers do not know what caused the fragmentation of space, and most likely never will, McDowell reported Wednesday (August 30). Ground-based radars only track objects larger than 4 inches (10 centimeters). According to the European Space Agency (ESA), about 34,550 such objects are currently known to exist in Earth orbit.

However, ESA estimates that in addition to the “visible” pieces of space debris, about 1 million debris objects measuring between 0.4 and 4 inches (1 cm to 10 cm) and 130 million pieces smaller than 0.4 inches were flying through the air. When space radars detect one of the large objects approaching a working satellite, operators are alerted and can move their spacecraft out of harm’s way. But there are no warnings about the arrival of the small litter.

The problem is, even a 0.4-inch piece of space debris can cause serious damage. In 2016, space debris just a few millimeters wide punctured a 16-inch (40 cm) hole in one of the solar panels of the European Earth observation satellite Sentinel 2. The impact produced several fragments large enough to be viewed from Earth. . Sentinel 2 survived the incident, but ESA engineers said the mission could be terminated if space debris entered the spacecraft’s hull.

Researchers have been sounding the alarm about the increasing amount of space debris orbiting Earth for years. Some fear that the condition is slowly approaching a scenario known as Kessler syndrome. Named after former NASA physicist Donald Kessler, the scenario predicts that as each space debris accident triggers a chain of subsequent collisions, the increasing numbers of fragments produced by orbital collisions will eventually render space around Earth unusable. Source