Earlier this month, an Australian shepherd was shocked to find a large piece of debris from Musk’s SpaceX capsule in the garden of his home. The event is the latest example of space junk crashing into Earth. Scientists warn that such incidents could become more common. While it doesn’t seem like things can get any worse on Earth, humanity could soon be threatened by falling space junk.
Dr Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, joined the research and warned that “human life may even be at risk if the number of crashes of space junk increases”. But no one has yet been hit by debris falling from space.
Dr Tucker believes that, so far, the threat posed by this uncontrolled space junk is minimal. But citing events such as the SpaceX debris discovery, the scientist acknowledged that there has been a significant increase in recent space junk crashes. “We’ve had three or four major incidents in the last two years, so you can really see that the rate at which this is happening is starting to pick up now because we’re putting things in space faster and faster.” .
The scientist delves into what actually happens when the junk falls to Earth, explaining that “space debris typically hits the atmosphere at 25,000 kilometers per hour (about 15,000 miles per hour). It is lost as it breaks down and explodes. A lot of energy, and a lot of speed lost, so when the debris falls to the ground, luckily they’re not traveling at 25,000 kilometers per hour, they’re more of a free fall. But, from 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) A 15kg piece of metal in free fall, if it happens to land on something or someone, can still cause massive damage. So far, no one has been hit and seriously injured by space junk, which is entirely fortunate.”
Dr Tucker stressed, “We are sending things into space and creating space junk at such a rapid rate that there are fears that luck may end at some point. In addition to threatening life on Earth, the accumulation of space debris could also deter humans. Explore the galaxy further. The idea is that we’re going to get to a point where there’s so much junk flying around in the air, we’re going to get to a point in space where there’s a lot of junk flying around and when they collide, They will split into more things.”