As of: March 7, 2024, 5:31 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Numerous satellites, as well as space debris, orbit the earth.
(Symbolic image) © dpa/ESA
A piece of space junk is getting closer to Earth and is expected to crash on Friday.
How great is the danger posed by space debris actually?
Munich - Germany is in turmoil: A piece of space junk, about the size of a car and weighing around 2.6 tons, is expected to fall to Earth on Friday (March 8).
Debris that does not burn up in the earth's atmosphere could also fall over Germany.
The federal government officially warns of this danger from space debris via the warning apps Katwarn and NINA.
In fact, Earth's orbit is full of space debris - and it is more of a threat to space travel than to Earth.
Around 35,000 objects are regularly monitored by space organizations, according to a website of the European Space Agency Esa.
In total there are said to be 36,500 space debris objects measuring more than 10 centimeters.
There are many more smaller objects that would burn completely if they entered the Earth's atmosphere: Esa lists around a million objects measuring between one and ten centimeters, as well as 130 million objects that are between one millimeter and one centimeter in size .
Space debris is primarily a threat to space travel
These smallest particles pose a danger to spacecraft because they travel very quickly and can create dangerous holes even if they are small.
But these tiny particles are not dangerous for the Earth because they do not reach the surface.
The situation is different with large amounts of space debris.
“Approximately every week a large space object re-enters in an uncontrolled manner,” explains Stijn Lemmens from Esa’s space debris office when asked by
merkur.de
from IPPEN.MEDIA.
“The majority of the associated fragments burn up before they reach the ground.”
Just a few weeks ago, the discarded ESA satellite ERS-2 also fell uncontrollably to Earth - that was not a danger to Earth.
Although ESA was unable to control the re-entry of the space debris into the Earth's atmosphere, the pieces that did not burn up completely fell over the sea.
Danger from space debris: Most of it ends up in the ocean
That's what most often happens to space debris: it comes down over uninhabited land or, in most cases, over the sea.
No wonder, after all, more than 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water.
Satellites that crash in a controlled manner are deliberately controlled so that they crash over the sea.
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This fate will one day also befall the International Space Station (ISS).
When it is scrapped in 2031, it will not continue to orbit the Earth as space junk, but will instead be sunk in the “spaceship graveyard”.
It is located at the most remote point on earth, “Point Nemo”.
This is the place on Earth that is furthest from land.
Since 1971, several hundred spaceships have been sunk there before becoming space junk and a danger.
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