4 ms·
What you did not consider is cascading collisions. If two high velocity objects collide, a large cloud of high velocity debris orbits Earth. The cloud expands a
by tqkxzugoaupvwqr 6y ago
What you did not consider is cascading collisions. If two high velocity objects collide, a large cloud of high velocity debris orbits Earth. The cloud expands and eventually parts of it collide with satellites, creating more debris that collides with other satellites, creating even more debris.
- qubex 6y agoOh no I understand that very well, I’m well versed in statistical mechanics. The thing is that the cross-section of the targets remain low, and therefore the amplitude of the scattering matrix remains pretty low. It’s actually pretty unlikely to successfully trigger off a divergent chain reaction. To use a nuclear analogy, it’s the density is well below a critical density (or rather, it’s far from a critical geometry).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- stripline 6y agoYou may already be aware, but for others reading, the cascading collisions scenario is called the Kessler Syndrome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome