Stunning images of planet Earth surrounded by space garbage

why can't we just toss all of our trash into lava pits on earth... just an idea (not related to space junk).

reply to post by porky1981


Because active volcanoes that spew lava are EXTREMELY dangerous and i dont think any contractor on the planet would touch that one with a 12 ft pole.

Those images are not real photos. Each of the satellites shown would be quite invisible at that range and resolution. Despite the fact that there are thousands of objects orbiting Earth these days, the total volume of space that they occupy is incredibly low.

some one just recently posted a thread entitled 'beautiful earthrise' or something like that, and no satellites were in that photo. I think it is very possible all this junk is out there, but the photo's must be simulated to show what it would look like IF we could see it.

Maybe thats how the aliens found us, one of them was cruising by and said to the other "hey look at all the # orbiting that one!"
Seriously though if you think about it, if we were a real space fairing people that could easily leave or solar system at will, a planet like ours with so much junk around it would stick out like a sore thumb, plus all the bright lights on the side opposite the sun, its like a giant neon sign. Both of these reasons are big ones for me in the belief other civilizations know we're here.

They aren't actual photographs. If you look at one of the sites they were originally posted at :

www.timesonline.co.uk...

you can see it clearly states they are a CGI artist's impression.

I saw these pics in a newspaper yesterday, under the pic it stated that it was an artists impression of whats out there.

like someone above said most would not be visable, and a lot of it re-enters the atmosphere and burn up.

It may take years to builkd some way of cleaning it up but it will take longer to debate who pays the cleaners.

There are an estimated 300,000 objects of more than 1cm in diameter orbiting the Earth, including about 12,000 satellites, of which only 6% are still functioning. US Space Command monitors about 18,000 objects that it considers to be dangerous.

Among the oddities in orbit are a glove, which was lost by an American astronaut doing repairs on the International Space Station (which is itself orbiting 135 miles up). If you include debris that is less than 1cm in diameter, the total rises to tens of millions of items. These are added to by the shooting-down of satellites that have outlived their usefulness with ballistic missiles. China destroyed a satellite by this means in 2007, as did the United States last year.

The Times 02/2009

Thanks for posting I'd never had cause to think about old satellites until now. 12, 000 and only 800 estimated to be functional I guess given the vastnness of our local space, 12, 000 satellites don't amount to much in the scheme of things. Still, it's more evidence (if anyone needs it) that humans are excellent at changing and exploiting our environment. We need to be careful we don't 'change and exploit' our way out of an environment

I actually started a thread on this in December.

With the increase in wireless technology, there might be an increase in satellites needed.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I actually thought about it, eventually, just like we are taking all technology and compiliing it to one device, I am sure the same will be done with satellites. Soon we will just launch a few small space stations, probablly manned, that will handle all our satellite needs.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Here is the scene in Wall-E where the ship is leaving the orbit. I thought it was very telling. These scenes struck a lot of people I think.

I think Wall-E even plucks Sputnik off him when they are out of orbit.

I was reading how any of these objects can be hazardous to spacecraft, including the tools dropped by astronauts, because of the velocity they travel at.