In a study published in Nature Astronomy, scientists estimated the probability that rocket fragments falling to Earth would cause some damage to the planet within 10 years. In fact, debris falls on us every minute of every day. Small comet and asteroid particles penetrate the atmosphere and settle on the surface of our planet unnoticed. This produces about 40,000 metric tons of dust per year on Earth.
This type of space debris can disable or somehow damage a spacecraft, for example. This happened recently with the James Webb telescope.
Fortunately, massive objects (in kilometers) rarely reach the Earth’s surface. This, for example, was when the dinosaurs died out.
During a new study, experts said that humans have been searching for artificial space debris, i.e. rocket parts, satellites, etc. They studied how dangerous it was for him to bring it to Earth.
The researchers found that there is a small but significant chance for this debris to reach the planet again in the next decade. True, this will most likely happen not in northern latitudes, but in southern latitudes. Overall, the study showed that the probability of missile bodies falling at the latitudes of Jakarta in Indonesia, Dhaka in Bangladesh or Lagos in Nigeria is about three times higher than in Beijing in New York, China in the USA. Moscow in Russia.
In addition, according to experts, the probability of injury to people due to falling missile parts in the next 10 years is 10 percent on average.
At the same time, the risk of damage to the planet from satellite debris today is believed to be very negligible. But as more organizations launching the spacecraft emerge, more accidents will occur in space and on Earth.
Source: Ferra
