How Climate Change Is Creating More Space Junk

You’ve probably heard a lot about how climate change is affecting our planet, but did you know a warming climate also affects objects in space?

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[scishowspace]

This is a reupload from earlier today. Thanks to those of you who pointed out our carbon dioxide labeling mix up!

[TrabberShir]

"hundreds" while technically true is a bit misleading. Hundreds have already been launched by the time this video came out. Tens of thousands will be launched over the coming years.

[NewMessage]

Nothing worse than having the size of your atmosphere judged when it's cold.

[DeliveryMcGee]

S-IVB is a bad example, they were all crashed into the Moon or, the earlier ones, sent into a heliocentric orbit (Apollo 12's S-IVB led to an amusing discovery when it came back around in 2002. "Wait, why is that comet painted white?")

[AryadiSubagio]

satellite traffic management system sounds so darn cool!

[mcconkeyb]

The ionosphere is also shrinking due to the decrease in solar activity. We seem to be entering into a period of time where the sunspot cycle is forming fewer and fewer sunspots and with that there is less and less high energy particles hitting the upper atmosphere, causing it to shrink. The real question here is which process is causing the greatest change?

[mrbello]

Me: Mystery solved of the recent UFO footage
Space Junk:

[habiks]

When exactly in history of earth did the climate not change and not make problems for life on earth?

[nathanj]

On September 22 the Daily Show featured a clip of this episode it was very cool to hear Hank’s voice on a national talk show.

[royce]

"a satellite traffic management system"

we... we don't have one of those yet!?!?

[NewbyTon]

Imagine if the UFO footage from 2004 or 2015 was just forgotten space junk flying around

[Shaden]

The upper atmosphere shrinks because it is getting cooler, but the middle and lower atmosphere is getting bigger because it is getting warmer which should increase the over all drag on satellites. This happened to Skylab back in the 70's The earth's atmosphere got warmer and denser over all from top to bottom and dragged Skylab back down to earth before its scheduled time.

[flightgamer]

Ahh climate change. What aren’t you responsible for?

[archenema]

I've discovered a new lifeform that lives on the negative energy generated by re-uploaded videos.

[YukiDemonOfHell]

I actually read a manga from like the 80s? where the main characters were the crew of a space garbage truck! their job was to collect small pieces of debris and to force larger pieces into the atmosphere to burn up. Tho the largest thing they moved in the manga was something as large as a truck. Bonus thing, Kesler Syndrome was actually a major plot point in it! which is pretty neat

[KnighteMinistriez]

We really do need to clean up the space junk before it makes it impossible to keep launching more satellites. I think that should be on our list of things to worry about after the pandemic is over. I really like space science. Space travel needs to continue to be a thing. Yay, science.

[clicksquad]

Here's what I found from Google:
Space junk can be a hazard to active satellites and spacecraft. It has been theorized that Earth orbit could even become impassable if the risk of collision grows too high.
Space debris has become a huge problem. Their accumulation in Earth's orbit has become a hindrance and can endanger future missions to the moon or Mars, according to the chief of a company that's trying to solve the issue. ... When they do hit each other, those collisions end up creating even more debris.
Space junk can impact other objects at over 22, 300 mph, faster than a speeding bullet. Collisions with those tiny pieces often leave pits and dings in the many satellites, telescopes, and other objects orbiting our planet.
A little spacecraft however could soon make a big contribution in the fight against space junk. Researchers are developing a cleanup cubesat called OSCaR (Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal), which would hunt down and de-orbit debris on the cheap using onboard nets and tethers.
As of July 2013, estimates of more than 170 million debris smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in), about 670, 000 debris 1–10 cm, and approximately 29, 000 larger pieces of debris are in orbit. As of July 2016, nearly 18, 000 artificial objects are orbiting above Earth, including 1, 419 operational satellites.
Despite their size, there has been no significant property damage from the debris. Notable examples of space junk falling to Earth and impacting human life include: 1969: five sailors on a Japanese ship were injured by space debris.
A Chinese rocket that became one of the largest pieces of space debris plummeted toward Earth and landed in the Atlantic Ocean on May 11. The rocket's empty core stage, weighing nearly 18 tons, is the largest piece of space debris to fall uncontrolled back to Earth since 1991.

[FirstPersonSciencePodcast]

Great sci-comm!! We need more like it in this age of misinformation!

[FMHikari]

I swear, we're going to need a spaceship with a net to try and catch trash

[spankymcflych]

GLOWBAWL WARMING MADE MY CATS HAIR FALL OUT!!!1!1