A recent MIT study reveals that climate change is significantly impacting satellite behavior by cooling the thermosphere, which disrupts natural atmospheric drag. This process is essential for safely bringing defunct satellites down to Earth. With more satellites being launched than ever, the altered atmospheric conditions could delay the disintegration of these objects, leading to an accumulation of space debris. The implications of this could affect critical services like weather tracking, internet access, and military operations, necessitating urgent attention to space traffic management.
Under normal conditions, after these satellites reach the end of their lifespans, natural atmospheric drag pulls them down to lower altitudes, where air molecules cause them to disintegrate.
If this trend continues, it could have ripple effects for everything from weather tracking and broadband internet access to national defense.
Because greenhouse gases keep heat trapped close to the Earth, more distant layers-like the thermosphere, where the majority of satellites orbit-are actually cooling down over time.
This phenomenon may lead to what you'd call a kind of space junk pile-up that could hinder our ability to effectively use space for communication and other essential operations.
Collection
[
|
...
]