Satellite burns up Was fireball over Switzerland more dangerous than expected?
Space is teeming with space debris. Elon Musk's Starlink satellite burns up over Switzerland on Tuesday evening. Such re-entries into the Earth's atmosphere are not without their problems.
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- After a trail of light in the night sky on Tuesday evening triggered much speculation, it became clear on Wednesday that a Starlink satellite had burned up over Switzerland.
- Millions of pieces of debris are flying around the earth as space debris.
- This poses a potential threat to space travel in particular.
On Tuesday evening, Switzerland was puzzled by a fireball in the night sky. It is now clear that the reason for the fast-moving, mysterious and brightly lit celestial spectacle was a Starlink satellite that entered the Earth's atmosphere over Switzerland and burned up.
Starlink satellites belong to Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX. They are designed to make fast internet available everywhere and fly at an altitude of around 500 kilometers. SpaceX is by far the largest operator with more than 5,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, with a total of around 42,000 planned.
The light show is also a special event for observers in the USA. Numerous videos are shared on social media.
The Starlink satellites can be seen again and again over Switzerland. They usually move across the sky as a fast-moving string of lights. Because the satellites fly so low, they are always particularly bright. Starlink flew over Switzerland for the first time in 2020.
Increasing space debris endangers space travel
According to the US space agency NASA, failed satellites or other space debris at an altitude of less than 600 kilometers fall back to Earth within a few years. They usually burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere. Millions of pieces of debris are currently flying around the earth as space debris. In addition, according to the European Space Agency Esa, there are more than 12,500 satellites orbiting the planet - many of which are no longer functional.
According to SpaceX, crashed satellites pose no threat to public safety. The situation is different in space travel: the Chinese space station "Tiangong" ("Heavenly Palace") was hit by space debris months ago. The International Space Station ISS also has to dodge debris time and again.
Millions of pieces of debris - danger to humans?
However, space debris does not only consist of satellites. According to Esa data, there are currently more than one million "anthropogenic" objects - i.e. objects created by humans - with a diameter of between one and ten centimetres orbiting the Earth. The estimated number of even smaller particles is significantly higher.
What are the dangers on the Earth's surface? To date, there has been no known case of people being harmed by falling debris from space. However, in March, a piece of metal weighing several kilograms crashed through the roof and two floors of a residential building in Naples, Florida. No one was injured, but the family's son was only two rooms away from the hole in the ceiling at the time. According to experts, the object could have come from the ISS.
The fact that there have been so few incidents so far is probably primarily due to the fact that most of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans. In the case of controlled re-entries, such as from the Russian Mir station in 2016, a re-entry corridor is specifically selected so that it lies above the sea in order to minimize the risk of damage.
However, as the number of objects in space will continue to increase in the coming years, space debris is likely to become even more important on the geopolitical agenda.
