4 ms·

As if there was not enough junk in space already.

by jkh1 9y ago

ars 9y ago
There's junk in low earth orbit. But this object is in solar orbit. There's very little junk there. There's very little anything there.
- TheRealPomax 9y ago
  Very little junk, but _loads of stuff_ in solar orbit in the form of the asteroid belt, the jupiter greeks/trojans and the hildas, the kuyper belt, and the oort cloud. There is so much there.
  - Sharlin 9y ago
    For extremely low values of ”so much”.
    - kybernetikos 9y ago
      Maybe, but on the other hand, I expect you've hardly ever used 'so much' to refer to more - since a small fraction of that 'so much' includes Earth and everything on it. As with everything, it depends on what your comparisons are to.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - ars 9y ago
    It's hard to really wrap your mind how BIG it is there. Those things you mention? They take up so little space they wouldn't even count if not for the fact there's nothing else. Space is REALLY big, and REALLY empty.
    - TheRealPomax 9y ago
      it's really empty unless you need to compute gravitational deviation over the course of decades. Then it's suddenly bloody full.
      - TeMPOraL 9y ago
        Gravity obeys inverse square law, so no, all that small stuff doesn't count on timescales of decades.
deleted 9y ago
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boxed 9y ago
Like the meteor belt? :P
- jacquesm 9y ago
  More like Jupiter.
deleted 9y ago
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TeMPOraL 9y ago
There isn't, and it's unlikely to ever be. I like to use this comparison: a single cell you shed from your skin pollutes the Earth more than the Roadster pollutes the Solar System.
- 3chelon 9y ago
  I like that analogy - but is there anything to back it up?
  - netrus 9y ago
    The order of magnitude is correct: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(diameter+of+blood+cell+in+meters)++*+(size+of+solar+system+in+km)%2F+(size+of+earth+in+km) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(diameter+of+blood+cel... (convert erythrocyte | diameter to meters)×(convert diameter of Neptune's orbit to kilometers)/(convert Earth | average radius to kilometers) = 11 meters edit: Of course you could argue with this calculation in all kind of ways - widths vs volume vs mass ... but I think for such a silly analogy this is good enough to say: It is not totally unreasonable.

As if there was not enough junk in space already.

by jkh1 9y ago

As if there was not enough junk in space already.

ars 9y ago

There's junk in low earth orbit. But this object is in solar orbit. There's very little junk there. There's very little anything there.

TheRealPomax 9y ago
Very little junk, but _loads of stuff_ in solar orbit in the form of the asteroid belt, the jupiter greeks/trojans and the hildas, the kuyper belt, and the oort cloud. There is so much there.
- Sharlin 9y ago
  For extremely low values of ”so much”.
  - kybernetikos 9y ago
    Maybe, but on the other hand, I expect you've hardly ever used 'so much' to refer to more - since a small fraction of that 'so much' includes Earth and everything on it. As with everything, it depends on what your comparisons are to.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- ars 9y ago
  It's hard to really wrap your mind how BIG it is there. Those things you mention? They take up so little space they wouldn't even count if not for the fact there's nothing else. Space is REALLY big, and REALLY empty.
  - TheRealPomax 9y ago
    it's really empty unless you need to compute gravitational deviation over the course of decades. Then it's suddenly bloody full.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Gravity obeys inverse square law, so no, all that small stuff doesn't count on timescales of decades.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

boxed 9y ago

Like the meteor belt? :P

jacquesm 9y ago
More like Jupiter.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

TeMPOraL 9y ago

There isn't, and it's unlikely to ever be. I like to use this comparison: a single cell you shed from your skin pollutes the Earth more than the Roadster pollutes the Solar System.

3chelon 9y ago
I like that analogy - but is there anything to back it up?
- netrus 9y ago
  The order of magnitude is correct: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(diameter+of+blood+cell+in+meters)++*+(size+of+solar+system+in+km)%2F+(size+of+earth+in+km) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(diameter+of+blood+cel... (convert erythrocyte | diameter to meters)×(convert diameter of Neptune's orbit to kilometers)/(convert Earth | average radius to kilometers) = 11 meters edit: Of course you could argue with this calculation in all kind of ways - widths vs volume vs mass ... but I think for such a silly analogy this is good enough to say: It is not totally unreasonable.