Regardless of whether your views of climate change are informed by politics or science, it becomes more difficult to ignore its effects on our life here on earth. However, a surprising study reports that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere could also influence the problem of space waste. With increasing thermal energy, which is stored in our atmosphere, the ability to scrub rubbing from low earth (Leo), increase the risk of satellite collisions and make it more likely that humanity could lose access to space completely.
Most predictions about climate change focus on things that affect our daily life. Extreme weather, rising sea level, effects on agriculture and populated areas become uninhabitable. This is because when we think of our atmosphere, we usually only consider the lowest, thickest layer as a troposphere. But in greenhouse gases, the satellite capacity of the Low -Earth orbit, a paper published in Nature Sustainability, William E. Parker and Richard Linares from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Matthew Brown from the University of Birmingham, the effects of climate change extend to space.
The atmosphere
The lowest layer of the atmosphere is referred to as a troposphere and has most of the air through mass. It marks the space where air is thick enough to support life. It is a turbulent region that extends at heights of about 5 km at the Poles up to 18 km on the equator. When weather reports talk about cold fronts and high -pressure regions, precipitation and temperature, all of this is done within the troposphere.
But there are additional layers higher. After the troposphere comes the stratosphere that extends up to 50 km. In addition, a climbing rocket reaches the mesosphere and then the thermosphere. The thermosphere begins only a little under the Kármán line and extends up to almost 700 km. It is named after its very high temperature (up to 2500 ° C, although an astronaut would not really feel this heat – the air molecules are spread so thinly that they cannot carry out their heat on solid objects). This is the same spectrum of heights and satellites in Leo.
The air in the thermosphere is close enough to a vacuum that can run through the spaceships in orbital speeds, but not so thin that there is still a small piece of air resistance. This means that satellites in Leo are constantly slower and gradually lose the height. If you do not receive a thrust regularly, you will inevitably step into the troposphere and burn.
Kessler syndrome
Experts for scientists and space industry have been spending the risk of space spokes for decades. Love so much astronomers to describe the sheer expanse of space, the Leo region, in which most artificial satellites live, is actually quite small. It is a thin shell, only a few hundred kilometers above our heads, and the different objects that circle there is faster than the rifle ball of a sniper.
Collisions can and do and the results can be spectacular. Even tiny color spots that affect the satellites and space vehicles at these speeds leave small craters in their structure. If enough dirt accumulates, these collisions will become more common, which in turn would create even more debris faster and faster, which leads to more collisions, which leads to a chain reaction that we call Kessler syndrome, which ultimately destroy all artificial satellites and make it impossible for every SpaceCraft through the space near the earth. In this case we would lose any access to space; Not only for astronauts that research the solar system, but also space telescopes, communication relays and straw observation platforms of firefighters, military, conservationists and climate scientists.
However, Kessler's syndrome is not inevitable. Space waste does not stay in space forever. The thin air of the thermosphere creates a tiny amount of resistance to all objects in Leo, so that every piece of garbage finally enters the earth's atmosphere and burns again. Leo is a self -administered region of space. This means that the real question that you have to worry about “how many collisions with meteoroids and existing people can be made with people before we add ruins faster than can fall from heaven?”
Unfortunately, the greenhouse gas paper at Kessler syndrome is bad news. It reminds us that climate change is caused by a general warming of the planet, which is caused by greenhouse gases that block the heat energy that would otherwise have radiated into space. But then it adds that this energy is enclosed in the lower layers of the atmosphere. This means that while the troposphere and the oceans become warmer and energetic, the outer layers of the thermosphere and exospre are actually colder. When a gas cools down, it becomes denser and tries to sink to a lower height. This makes the thermosphere thinner and reduces the air resistance to objects that circle at low heights, and which means that remnants of space hang around much longer, which in turn means that the Kessler syndrome rather occurs.
Protect space
The space industry is currently being dominated by technology companies that drive the stand of the racet station in order to make space much more affordable, and use their own technology to start mega constellations of communication satellites. These companies are currently in the crosshairs of environmental activists. This is not only because your satellite mega constellations make it increasingly difficult for professional and amateur astronomers to observe the universe, but also because they plan to build large data centers to operate the AI revolution. These data centers need enormous amounts of electricity to run, and it is assumed that many technology companies return to previous residents of carbon.
It is ironic that the same companies that work so hard to open up space for commercial and industrial use also help to kill the same dream. However, we can hope that these companies will recognize that they cannot build a company that is based on record -breaking number of satellites in Leo if these satellites are continuously shattered into pieces. If you should continue to benefit from space, you will first be forced to protect our environment.
