Burned-up space junk pollutes Earth's upper atmosphere, NASA planes find

[Admin]

Scientists have detected the presence of air pollutants from burning space junk in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere.

Burned-up space junk pollutes Earth's upper atmosphere, NASA planes find : Read more

 

[Pogo]

And that’s a surprise?

 

[Dink Singer]

What is left out here is that much of this pollution, especially the aluminum oxides mentioned as a major problem, come from the reentry of the upper stages of launch vehicles (and of the first stages of all launch vehicles in use except Falcon 9). When SpaceX makes the switch to StarShip its second stage will also return intact.

 

[agimarc]

Painting has an Et at a high altitude. As much as those of us who were trying to do that 35 years ago wanted to do that, sadly it never happened. The ETs all reentered and splashed down somewhere east of Hawaii following Challenger. Cheers -

 

[Classical Motion]

Does anybody know what kind of motion is up there in our rarefied atmosphere? Is that air rotating with the earth? Or is it static and the earth rotates within it. Are there winds and stream currents that high up?

Is there a height where the atmosphere stops rotating with the earth?

 

[losgatos_dale]

Scientists have detected the presence of air pollutants from burning space junk in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere.

Burned-up space junk pollutes Earth's upper atmosphere, NASA planes find : Read more

The article states that the portion of the stratosphere under study is "pristine" and not subject to planet-level contaminants (ergo, material constituents identified must come from space junk.)
But it continues by acknowledging that stratosphere's "recovery" from earth-sourced ozone depletion,
which would mean the portion of the stratosphere under study IS subject to planet level contaminants!
Am I just confused? Or... is it ok to ask , "which is it?"

 

[billslugg]

Depends on the item. If it is a fluorocarbon, it is a gas coming from ground level. It can reach any altitude it wants simply by diffusion. Things like metals are in the form of tiny particles, they can't really get up there by diffusion, must be by winds, of which there are none.

 

[Questioner]

"...particles dispersed at high altitudes are most likely never going to fall to Earth, Boley warned, which means that their concentrations are only going to rise with time."

Let me counter with a potentially alternative thought stream.

This may act as inadvertent geoengineering,
creating sunlight block that may act as a counter mechanism to global warming.

Not the ideal solution (the ozone), but at the rate we are going with fossil fuels
we have to grab every straw that comes by.

 

[Classical Motion]

I read earlier where the FAA is considering putting out a satellite debris warning. I read where 1 death per 2 years could be expected in the near future.

 

[billslugg]

I read earlier where the FAA is considering putting out a satellite debris warning. I read where 1 death per 2 years could be expected in the near future.

I read that article and the study was debunked. They assumed a hundred fold increase in traffic and nobody used the design that burns up. They ignored the fact that of the 200 Starlink satellites that have re-entered, not one piece of debris has been found. It was a pure scare tactic.