An object struck a satellite in Earth’s orbit, leaving a hole

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An object struck a satellite in Earth’s orbit, leaving a *****

An unknown small object, traveling thousands of miles per hour, punctured a satellite in

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‘s orbit.

The satellite company NanoAvionics released images online showing the damage to its MP42 satellite, launched in 2022 and designed to host several instruments for different customers. The source of the ***** from a chickpea-sized object is uncertain, but the event underscores the growing risk to spacecraft in orbit around our planet.

“Whether this impact was from a micrometeoroid or a piece of space debris, the collision highlights the need for responsible space operations in orbit and makes us reflect on satellite resilience against these types of events,” the company

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.

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Though natural impacts from small meteoroids — which are fragments of an

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— are inevitable in our

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(a place teeming with asteroids), both

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agencies and companies alike don’t want human-created space debris to increase. That would, of course, endanger everyone’s interests, and may eventually spawn a domino effect of continually increasing space collisions called the Kessler effect. (

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with Don Kessler, a former senior scientist for orbital debris research at

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, about this debris risk.)

The impact of the MP42 satellite thankfully didn’t contribute to a debris problem, but as shown below, left a ***** in a solar panel.

On bottom left, a zoomed-in view shows the six millimeter (quarter-inch) ***** left by the recent collision.

On bottom left, a zoomed-in view shows the six millimeter (quarter-inch) ***** left by the recent collision. Credit: Kongsberg NanoAvionics

NanoAvionics noted that it has joined the ********* Space Agency’s Zero Debris Charter, which aim to significantly reduce the creation of new space debris by 2030. Just a small object packs a big punch. “A collision with a 1cm particle travelling 10 km/s (of which there are about a million in orbit) releases the same energy as a small car crashing at 40 km/h,” the agency said.

“By joining this initiative, we’re helping to ensure that NanoAvionics’ satellites and those from our customers operate responsibly and contribute to a safer future in space,” NanoAvionics wrote.

Operating responsibly means that defunct spacecraft self-dispose themselves into Earth’s atmosphere, where they’ll largely ***** up. It also means designing craft that don’t intentionally release space debris (like lens caps or rocket parts), vigilantly

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(the

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, for example, has to at times move to avoid a heightened impact threat), and of course discouraging the

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Today, unregulated orbital trash now permeates a region of space around Earth called low Earth orbit, or LEO.

“LEO is an orbital space junk yard,” NASA

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. “There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds.”

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#object #struck #satellite #Earths #orbit #leaving #*****

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