Two decommission satellites will slip by very nigh to each other on January 29 and according tosatellite tracking company LeoLabs Incthere is a one - in-100 chance of the two craftiness colliding . While the hit is no scourge to man on Earth , these variety of events are exacerbate the risk of grave debris fall upon crewed craft and authoritative orbiter .
One of the satellites in question is the decommissionedInfrared Astronomical Satellite(IRAS ) , the first - ever infrared telescope to perform a view of the full sky , which operate for 10 months in 1983 . It ’s definitely the chunkier of the two , at 3.6 metre by 3.24 meters by 2.05 meters ( 11.8 × 10.6 × 6.7 foot ) and consider somewhat over a ton . The other physical object is GGSE-4 , a 4.5 - kilo ( 10 - pound ) retired scientific discipline planet that was launched in 1967 .
According to LeoLabs , at 11:39pm UTC the two satellites will follow as close as 15 to 30 meter ( 50 to 100 feet ) to each other , roughly 900 kilometers ( 560 miles ) over the city of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . Given that both satellites are no longer in operation , there ’s no way to correct their celestial orbit and put them on a safer course .
" Such collision have happened in the past for indisputable . The thing that ’s really interesting about this one is that the estimated unaired pass within 15 to 30 metres is incredibly close , " Dr Alice Gorman , a space archaeologist at Flinders University toldScienceAlert .
" Spacecraft have take evasive maneuvers to avoid things that are only within 60 kilometer . So this is a really , really close encounter . And if this does actually come to pass , there ’s potentially a large amount of debris that will be create . I would say this is one of the most dangerous potential hit that we ’ve seen for some time . "
The main concern when a collision take place is that we are receive closer to the formation of the so - calledKessler Syndrome . A theoretic scenario , it posit collisions between space debris get more space rubble , and if the tightness of object is high enough they could create even more collisions , finally making those orbital mountain range difficult to use or pass through for generation .
There are over 100 million patch of debris orbiting in space and they area risk to satellite and astronauts likewise . There are remains of used rockets , satellite fragments , a lost camera , and for a timeeven a spatula . Most of the debris is move at around 8 kilometers ( 5 miles ) per second or faster – even a tiny speck of blusher is exceedingly dangerous under those conditions .
[ H / T : ScienceAlert ]
