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Beehive!
An American-based satellite crashed into a defunct Russian military satellite earlier this week, giving rise to the possibility of debris knocking into other satellites, floating off into space, or crashing down into earth. (Yikes!) The gravitational pull to earth versus the weightlessness of space must be carefully balanced and the disruption will likely cause chaos— especially to spacecrafts made of light allows— if not managed properly.
The satellites in question were low earth orbit (LEO), meaning that they are positioned between 160-2,000 km, or 100-1,240 miles, above the Earth’s surface. In the photo above, LEO satellites are the layer closest to earth, and as you can see, there’s a lot of them! The number of space debris resulting from the collision remains disputed. However, experts predict that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of fragments will stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years.
