10/02/09 first major collision between two artificial satellites in Earth orbit

[vespine]

Incredible, one less iridium flare to look up to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision

[Astro78]

This doesn't sound good :) Perhaps less of an issue now but as more collide surely the collision rate will accelerate.

I recall a segment from 'Beyond Tomorrow' that showed a team in the US with some pretty bold plans to track and shoot down small pieces of debris. Might have been a private venture too.

[fringe_dweller]

at about 6:15 pm local time ACDST thursday 12th during adelaide hills evening bushwalk i observed a very strange small pair of small twisting 'clouds' roughly located halfway between sun and horizon, so wsw direction, there very literally wasnt a single other cloud in the sky in my huge wide vista atop a large hill. at first i thought daytime fireball remnant smoke train! which i have seen once or twice before, and a large number of nightime examples in my long meteor observing period, and it behaved very much like a fireball train, twisting and turning in upper atmosphere winds, it would even disappear on the rolls and reappear when the forward scattering of sunlight came into effect on favourable rotations, I have seen a squillion aircraft contrails, and it was like no other contrail i have seen, it could of been a fuel dump i 'spose, but after reading about this collision i'm intrigued, would a debri cloud been passing over at this time? of course fireballs are of a much lower altitude than these debris, but i'm wondering about a forward scattering scenario with this debri cloud, could be completely unrelated of course! :)

[iceman]

Hey Kearn, welcome back!

[fringe_dweller]

Gday and thanks Mike!, i was never away completely, just a bit 'time poor' and a silent participant these days :) good to see IIS still going strong!

[jkrah]

From the ABC website
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/12/2490208.htm)... But the leading British astronomer, David Whitehouse, believes most of the wreckage will burn up in the earth's atmosphere.
"Hundreds, perhaps thousands of bits of debris have been created from the wreckage of these two satellites and they will stay in the high orbit and will slowly come back to earth,"

Im wondering when and where the debris will reenter and will we be able to see it ? Could be cool to see..
Might it result in anything like a meteor storm ??

[jkrah]

or maybe not..

(from Chinese news site)
"... predicted that a debris's flying speed may reach 7.8 kilometers one second, or even faster, and may remain in space for decades."
bummer..

[iceman]

This article and video of a fireball in the sky in Texas claims that it's debris from the crash.

Whether it is or not, or if it's just a nice daylight fireball, it's still a nice video.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=232068

[sheeny]

Nasa is watching the debris cloud closely as there is a risk that the debris could make the Hubble Servicing Mission unsafe, which in turn would limit the future life of Hubble...

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090218/full/457940a.html

Al.

[jkrah]

crap.. not good news for the Hubble.. :(
I did not realise low earth orbit was so busy..
Why is the Hubble of all things so close to an orbital freeway..
(and is it maneuverable ?)

A recent (very cool) ISS flyover got me google'ing up about it (the ISS)..
and this incident remind me how brave those guys up there are..
Its just so dangerous..

Articles seem to say the collision poses no immediate threat (to the ISS)..
But what about more long term..
The collision was at aprox. 800Km up and the ISS is about 400km..