Feb 12 2009Woops: Two Satellites Crash Into Each Other
Two satellites in earth's orbit recently crashed into each other and caused a huge mess. "Cleanup in outerspace aisle 4!" Great, right when I was about to get off too.
In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today."As of about 12 hours ago, I think the head count was up (to around) 600 pieces," Carey told CBS News late today. "It's going to take about two days before we get a solid picture of what the debris fields look like. But you, I think, can imply that the majority of that should be probably along the same line as the original orbits."
Lovely, more space junk for me to run into in my rocket ship when I finally blast the hell out of here. And if you're having trouble understanding how two satellites could accidentally run into each other, just look at the image above, which is a rendering showing some of the 18,000 objects that are being tracked in earth's orbit. With that much stuff floating around, accidents are bound to happen. And speaking of which, Happy Birthday, son!
Two satellites collide in orbit [spaceflightnow]
Thanks to Dr Necropolis and E of R, who both agree this was planned by those devious Ruskies.
Reader Comments
1. Ollie Williams Is A Pompous F.UCKTARD - February 12, 2009 2:29 PM
Ollie Williams can suck it!
2. Cessy - February 12, 2009 2:29 PM
Great. We trash the Earth, adn now we just keep on trashing the universe.
GO HUMANS! WE KICK EVERY OTHER SPECIES ASS.
3. Kup - February 12, 2009 2:31 PM
first......
and you have to wonder if a large wet-dry vac just sucked up all those pesty little things circling the globe, how we'd survive........
kinda looks like the gnats circling around a baboons ass to me!
4. ko0pa - February 12, 2009 2:32 PM
Shits weak!
5. guate6 - February 12, 2009 2:34 PM
Looks like a live-action version of the earth from WALL-E
:-\
6. naas - February 12, 2009 2:37 PM
Well that explains all these forks in the yard. I thought the neighborhood kids were up to no good again but it must be satellite brain matter.
I'm putting a link in my name now so it glows nicely like you.
7. My Taint Itches - February 12, 2009 2:37 PM
Come on... is that a real picture?
Is there honestly that much shti floating around the earth?
8. gizmoduck - February 12, 2009 2:40 PM
eat frog dick timmy!
shits weak!
9. Pedant - February 12, 2009 2:46 PM
Dammit, it's infer not imply! Get it right!!
10. catch22 - February 12, 2009 2:50 PM
@7 there is actully more, thats just an artists rendering
11. Jumpin_J - February 12, 2009 2:57 PM
With all that space stuff flying around, doesn't that stuff have to eventually burn up in the atmosphere sooner than later?
12. Madgame - February 12, 2009 3:05 PM
I wish I were funny like GW
13. LSDiesel - February 12, 2009 3:05 PM
I just know that the alien's feel too sorry for us to take over our planet.
14. Pew³ - February 12, 2009 3:12 PM
Hey, Timmy, any chance I can crash on your couch tonight?
15. Todd - February 12, 2009 3:25 PM
18,000 sounds like a lot, but the majority of those objects are smaller than a car. Imagine 18,000 sofas flying around a 2D area the size of the USA. How likely would it be that they run into each other? Nearly zero. Now muliply/integrate to expand to all of area around the earth. Stuff rarely ever collides.
16. Hunter - February 12, 2009 3:31 PM
Wall-E anyone?
17. Timbo - February 12, 2009 3:31 PM
Ding Dang! Look at the big brain on Todd
18. Beastman AIDS - February 12, 2009 3:41 PM
So is that rendering actually fairly accurate or has the artist made all the space junk look super big? And what is this stuff? I presume it's all at least satelite sized or there would be no point tracking it?
I'm alarmed - save me!
19. $.02 and a pocket full of FAH-Q - February 12, 2009 3:41 PM
I have no issue communicating without the use of profanity. Quite frankly, the english language offers much more colorful adjectives. The point being made is simply that in this country, where this blog is hosted, we have freedom of speech. The same freedom of speech that would protect this blogger (GW) in court. I find it rather disingenuous of him to post NSFW content and genitalia jokes, then censor our comments about them.
Soviet Russia All Your Satellite Are SQUISH
20. reggie - February 12, 2009 3:49 PM
first
21. poodles - February 12, 2009 3:54 PM
OHHHHHHHH SNAP! I actually read an article last summer in pop. mech. about space junk being a problem, remember when the Chinese tested their primitive "satelite destroying technology?" Well apparently it created a huge swarm of debris that circled the planet in like an hour! Idiots.... anyway yeah I thought of Wall-E too.
22. poodles - February 12, 2009 3:55 PM
also, I think the rendering is almost accurate, although the junk appears much bigger than it actually is!
23. poodles - February 12, 2009 4:09 PM
yo check this out
"A pea-sized piece of debris measuring one-centimetre travelling at 10 km/second has the same kinetic energy as a 250-kg dumpster whirring along at 100 km/hour, according to NASA."
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/02/12/space-junk-numbers.html
24. naas - February 12, 2009 4:15 PM
@23 Thanks for the science, that pic could use a little head & shoulders too.
25. poodles - February 12, 2009 4:17 PM
OF course!
26. Jon Harald Søby - February 12, 2009 4:41 PM
You should check out the anime/manga Planetes, which is set in 2075 and revolves around a group of space debris scavengers. It is really good.
27. Watch - February 12, 2009 5:00 PM
interesting
28. gizmoduck - February 12, 2009 5:14 PM
i have a bush, but its not grey.
i dont have a grey bush.
thats not what my mom said.
29. Daisy - February 12, 2009 5:47 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max asked a guy where he was from, and the guy said what. Max mocked the country of what, and then challenged him to say what again. Eventually the guy did say what, and Max shot him.
30. cd - February 12, 2009 6:36 PM
daisy is right
31. Sam - February 12, 2009 7:00 PM
But before we can trash zhe universe we have to invebt first many little Wall-e's!
32. formerly SPELLINGNAZI© - February 12, 2009 7:52 PM
I did an informative speech on Space Junk about a year ago. The numbers are about right, but as stated earlier, that pic is not to scale. But the speed in which some of it is traveling, the velocity would rip holes right through a satellite or spacecraft, "Armageddon" style!
33. Al Dracone - February 12, 2009 9:53 PM
No PEW PEW? Well, I guess KABOOM works too... This blog is getting boring..
34. MadMonkey - February 12, 2009 9:56 PM
You people are complete morons if you think that picture is accurate.. there would be no life left on Earth if it were.
Yes, there are a few thousands of pieces of space junk up there... everything from screws to tools to bits and pieces of broken spacecraft. A very small number of those are actual satellites.
The odds of this happening are trillions to one. There's more to this story than meets the eye...
35. E of R - February 13, 2009 8:07 AM
MmmmMmmmm Russian Vodka... Dough!
36. softlicious - February 13, 2009 8:08 AM
SHIT!
We need a giant cleaning lady! Something about shadows'
This is just like in that movie Stargate Atlantis where Max had to protect his spaceship from the debris that Baja threw out from his space ship, or something. Then Max bought Baja a drink for helping him to paint cats house with dry paint but without ice, because the ice was in the paint that wasn't dry after all.
Thanks for the manuscript Daisy!
37. pro - February 13, 2009 9:28 AM
this is despicable, first it was the toilet, then the shot down satellite, then the toolkit, now this? I say there needs to be agreements on 'space' space. This is madness, our orbit will be crowded with satellites if nobody says or does anything about this. I don't want to live on such a planet , its like that movie, wall-e
38. K4ot1K - February 13, 2009 9:53 AM
This is our temporary shield against the alien invasion. We hope all that crap destroys their ship before they get to us.
39. Ollie Williams - February 13, 2009 10:05 AM
@34
Much like Transformers?
40. Ollie Williams Is A Pompous F.UCKTARD - February 13, 2009 3:43 PM
@40
F.uck you. Dildo licker. Fuc.k you and your fu.cking Go Bots. You fuc.k.
41. ToddDiroberto - July 18, 2009 6:09 PM
This is a bad news.
http://www.prwebphotowire.com/releases2/imid1448864.htm?id=1448864&prid=2437704