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The Sky is Falling

Posted February 23, 2009 12:00 AM by joeymac

What's that up in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's just a satellite; heads up!

On February 11^th,Russian and U.S. space satellites collided over northern Siberia at an altitude of 491 miles. The collision caused a cloud of wreckage, which put the estimates at around 600 pieces of debris. The Russian satellite was Cosmos 2251, a communications relay station that was believed to be non-operational for approximately the past 10 years. The U.S. satellite was a commercial Iridium communications satellite.

Analysts are saying that the debris can spread into many directions because of the colliding force. I for one would be sweating a little bit if I were in the NASA space station right about now. There were also reports in Texas that saying there was supposedly debris from the collision falling over the state.

Nothing to this extent has happened before, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of problems this collision might cause down the road to all the other satellites in space – which totals around 18,000 objects.

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magwer Power-User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 342	#1 Re: The Sky is Falling 02/23/2009 10:28 AM
	Oh Brotherrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! That will be kind of spooky for sure. Hopefuly no more of those keep coming down now. That's all we need! Imagine one of those Puppys heading down at such speeds, and very hot in top of that, no way, forget it. Better not to find Out!!!!! Waaaaaammmhh...Kapuuuuuussshhh........ That's It......... Not for real that's very interesting data there you bring up absolutly. No Joke. Better to be aware of such fenomenoms out there, just in case! Heavy Stuff, MC
	Reply

gsuhas Guru Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: 18 29 N 73 57E Posts: 1388 Good Answers: 31	#2 Re: The Sky is Falling 02/23/2009 11:33 PM
	Fragments of these two satellites coming directly toward us is very small hazard. Much bigger hazard is possible collission of these fragments with other satellites. This is possible dangerous chain reaction, pushing all of us to dooms day.
	Reply