How visible is Earth's space junk pollution?

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

Climate doomers love to fear monger about how so many satellites and so much artificial debris is in Earth's orbit (despite being at varying distances from Earth) that the blue marble is completely obscured by a layer of trash.

They love using images like these to articulate their point:



Climate doomers will also take actual NASA photographs of Earth from geosynchronous orbit and claim that they were doctored to "make Earth not look like a ball of shit"

If an alien were to fly toward Earth and look out the window, would this be what they see? Or are those bits of space debris so inconsequential that they can barely be seen?

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

I'm with you brother! I prescribe to the "I don't see it, not my problem." philosophy. I pour my oil down the drain, I use non-flushable wipes, whenever I'm in the womens restroom i flush tampons and maxipads out of principle

 

[Stephanie Bustcakes]

The earth is 8000 miles wide. Even if each bit of space debris was the size of a stadium, you wouldn't be able to see any of it if you looked at the earth from that distance.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

PRISON PLANET

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

PRISON PLANET

Pitch Black 2: Even Blacker

 

[Cats]

The earth is 8000 miles wide. Even if each bit of space debris was the size of a stadium, you wouldn't be able to see any of it if you looked at the earth from that distance.

It's really just this. There are lots of pieces of junk, and it's certainly not good, but those photos like in the OP greatly exaggerate. Pieces like that would be kilometers upon kilometers wide.

 

[We Are The Witches]

It's really just this. There are lots of pieces of junk, and it's certainly not good, but those photos like in the OP greatly exaggerate. Pieces like that would be kilometers upon kilometers wide.

Of course those photos in OP are exaggerated, the first one looks like if it was taken from Roblox or something.

 

[Londo]

The illustrations are used as people struggle really poorly with the visualisation of space.

We've royally fucked ourselves with the space junk situation. It's not the large pieces that are the issues or old, disused tech - they will naturally get pulled down and will burn up on re-entry. The main issue are all the tiny particles and fingernail sized debris. With a lack of resistance and the speeds at which items travel to maintain orbit it doesn't take very much to cause significant damage.

The ISS has already had to do an emergency thrust within the last few years to avoid impact.

Another thing the public don't realize is that satellites follow routes like ships do on Earth to avoid the weak spots in the magnetic field that allow higher levels of radiation to get through.

tl;dr: the public are retarded, space is complex to understand, and they need to make images that emphasize the point.

 

[Chongqing]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that the Chinese government doesn't have the same approach to space pollution as the US and Russia. Every launch, countless pieces of debris are going into our orbit, while the US and Russia typically don't and then they track it when they do.

I pour my oil down the drain

Off topic, but I just became aware that this is a taboo recently, in the thread for Fishtank.

So, if not pour it down the drain, what are you supposed to do with your cooking oil?

Are you supposed to wait for it to cool, and then pour it in a patch of dirt?

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that the Chinese government doesn't have the same approach to space pollution as the US and Russia. Every launch, countless pieces of debris are going into our orbit, while the US and Russia typically don't and then they track it when they do.


Off topic, but I just became aware that this is a taboo recently, in the thread for Fishtank.

So, if not pour it down the drain, what are you supposed to do with your cooking oil?

Are you supposed to wait for it to cool, and then pour it in a patch of dirt?

Serious answer: put it in a jar and use it for further cooking.
Meme answer: pour it down the drain. Cuz you never know who vented, and it's straight bussin! Plz kill me.

 

[MrTroll]

You can see my junk from space. That's how big it is.

 

[Hamstirer]

Serious answer: put it in a jar and use it for further cooking.
Meme answer: pour it down the drain. Cuz you never know who vented, and it's straight bussin! Plz kill me.

We get it, you are a retard with nigger Iq. Nobody cares, nobody finds you funny.

 

[Dr. Eldon Tyrell]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that the Chinese government doesn't have the same approach to space pollution as the US and Russia. Every launch, countless pieces of debris are going into our orbit, while the US and Russia typically don't and then they track it when they do.


Off topic, but I just became aware that this is a taboo recently, in the thread for Fishtank.

So, if not pour it down the drain, what are you supposed to do with your cooking oil?

Are you supposed to wait for it to cool, and then pour it in a patch of dirt?

I thought everybody was talking about pouring motor oil down the drain...

 

[The Connected Nose]

It's not the amount that's the problem, it's the velocity. Even small items can pack a hell of a punch, and the damage they can do increases with mass.

Or to put in in perspective, you've probably seen what a .50 BMG round can do to a target. Now imagine if that same mass was moving about 8-10x faster. Or inversely, to get the same effect of being hit with a .50 BMG, you only need a small paperclip when you're talking about closing distances measured in kilometers per second.

And most of it is not visible. Which is why NORAD and others have radar tracking pretty much everything bigger than a cm or so across.

 

[Londo]

It's not the amount that's the problem, it's the velocity. Even small items can pack a hell of a punch, and the damage they can do increases with mass.

Or to put in in perspective, you've probably seen what a .50 BMG round can do to a target. Now imagine if that same mass was moving about 8-10x faster. Or inversely, to get the same effect of being hit with a .50 BMG, you only need a small paperclip when you're talking about closing distances measured in kilometers per second.

And most of it is not visible. Which is why NORAD and others have radar tracking pretty much everything bigger than a cm or so across.

Same reason that travelling faster than light - even if possible - would be very much impossible... even if space is mostly a void, all it would take it something with the mass of a fleck of paint to create enough energy on impact to create a nuclear level explosion of any object going that fast.

Star Trek deflector shields hopefully become a thing.

 

[Whatevermancer]

So, if not pour it down the drain, what are you supposed to do with your cooking oil?

Pour it into some container and throw it in the trash. Although, where I live some grocery stores have special containers to dispose used oil, similarly to how they have boxes for old batteries.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

I don’t think Mother Earth has “junk”

 

[Smar Mijou]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that the Chinese government doesn't have the same approach to space pollution as the US and Russia. Every launch, countless pieces of debris are going into our orbit, while the US and Russia typically don't and then they track it when they do.

The Chinese not giving a fuck about the environment, the future, thoughts for others, or consequences for their actions? Imagine my shock....

So, if not pour it down the drain, what are you supposed to do with your cooking oil?

Are you supposed to wait for it to cool, and then pour it in a patch of dirt?

Serious answer, you can take used oil of most varieties to a recycling center and dispose of it. Some places will use it in oil furnaces for heat. If you have old cooking oil, it can be disposed of in a weed or grass patch, just be aware that it can be flammable until it's dispersed in the ground.

As far as used industrial/automotive oils, they  allegedly make good weed killers. Or if you burn your garbage, it can be disposed of there. If you have a fuel oil furnace, if you dilute/filter impurities, you can dispose small amounts there as well.

 

[Chongqing]

The Chinese not giving a fuck about the environment, the future, thoughts for others, or consequences for their actions? Imagine my shock....

It would actually be a good cause of war.

If that doesn't justify one, I don't know what would.

 

[Dysnomia]

It's really just this. There are lots of pieces of junk, and it's certainly not good, but those photos like in the OP greatly exaggerate. Pieces like that would be kilometers upon kilometers wide.

The tiny pieces you can barely are supposed to be the most dangerous. Just a speck of space junk hitting a spacecraft at the right speed can cause serious damage.

And isn't it just like us to leave trash everywhere. Even in space. But it's inevitable. If you are going to sent people and things up there then you are going to generate space junk.