By some estimates, there are approximately 3,000 dead satellites orbiting Earth and its surroundings. 34,000 pieces of space junk left behind by humans. Humans always leave footprints wherever they go.
And in space, it becomes an even bigger problem. That’s because disassembly takes much longer and just makes the area more messy, he says. jack gavittassociate professor of physics at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
Just as humans return to the moon and aim to travel to Mars, the more people visit space, the more likely they are to die there. This raises the question of what happens to objects in space.
bacteria in space
Bacteria are required to break down organic materials, and bacteria often require oxygen. While some types of bacteria are anaerobic or can break down materials without oxygen, Gavitt says this is often not the case.
“The question then becomes, ‘Are there enough bacteria on this item to break something down?'” Gavitt says.
Only three members of Soyuz 11, Georgi T. Dobrovolsky, Vladislav N. Volkov, and Viktor I. Pasayev, died in space, but their bodies returned to Earth and rotted in space. There was nothing to do. But if so, there may already be enough bacteria in the body to allow some kind of breakdown. However, the decomposition process would be slow because there is no oxygen in space to help drive the process along. the dry air Decay is also slow.
However, in the case of trash, it is difficult to start the decomposition process because there are no bacteria to begin with.
If an object were to float in the vacuum of space, there would also be a lack of oxygen in the atmosphere, so aerobic decomposition, which requires oxygen, would not be possible.
“Essentially, wherever degradation has occurred, it will occur more slowly,” Gavitt said.
read more: What is space junk? Why is it a problem?
Decomposition depends on placement in space
For example, for inorganic objects like pieces of metal, the decomposition process takes much longer in space. A variety of processes can break down objects, but they all move much more slowly than they do on Earth, Gavitt says.
For example, if a piece of metal is orbiting in space, it depends on where in space the debris is floating. If the trash is in a lower orbit than Earth, such as the distance from Earth to the International Space Station, it will break down due to friction.
Debris orbits the Earth at a speed of about 18,000 miles per hourcollide with speeds that destroy air molecules. It could also come closer to Earth, where it would hit the denser atmosphere at much higher speeds and start burning more rapidly. But further away from Earth, there is less friction to break down trash.
“Because you’re essentially in a pure vacuum, the atoms can’t hit objects,” Gavitt says.
At this point, you’re left with radiation from the sun, particles of the solar wind blown away from the sun, and perhaps small meteorites that blow debris over and over again, but the process of breaking anything down at this point takes time. Thousands of years. And once you reach deep space, the process slows down even more. Solar radiation decreases as you move away from the sun.
The bottom line is that many of the 34,000 objects left in the universe are likely to be there for many years to come. And for us humans traveling into space, the process of decomposition will be a long one. It is best to minimize space junk. Otherwise, space will soon descend into chaos and collisions with the objects left behind will be very likely.
read more: Scientists warn of increasing amount of junk in space
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Sarah Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work has appeared in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and more. She graduated from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is also a master’s candidate in science writing at Johns Hopkins University (scheduled to graduate in 2023).
