In addition to space debris and disturbances to astronomical observations, the excessive crowding of satellites in orbit could also pose a threat to the Earth's magnetic field: the danger comes from the tiny charged particles that these objects leave behind during their eventual destruction. life, when they re-enter the atmosphere, which could cause significant disturbances.
This is what the online study on the arXiv website indicates, which hosts articles not yet subjected to scrutiny by the scientific community, and signed by the American astrophysicist Sierra Solter-Hunt.
According to the study, the same phenomenon could also have negative consequences on the ozone layer.
The researcher took into consideration Space therefore on average 23 satellites per day re-enter the atmosphere, disintegrating, and then being replaced.
This is over 26 thousand kilograms of material that passes through the layers around the Earth every day, a mass 150 million times greater than the Van Allen belt, the donut-shaped area within the Earth's magnetic field in which particles accumulate charges (plasma) which generally derive from the solar wind.
This means that the mega-constellations of satellites are creating their own region of charged plasma characterized by a mass much greater than that of the Van Allen belt or any other zone within the magnetic field.
According to Solter-Hunt's calculations, since the birth of the space industry, approximately 20 thousand tons of material have been destroyed during re-entry into the atmosphere, which could remain in the form of dust for years.
The researcher highlights that the nature and composition of the Earth's magnetic field is not immutable as some think and, indeed, is very delicate: monitoring and analysis will therefore be necessary to better understand the effects that satellite constellations could have.
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