Space Junk

Various news agencies, including the CBC, report that two satellites — an old Russian one that no longer functioned and one from the Iridium system that provides connectivity for satellite phones — collided today. This would be amusing if it wasn’t also alarming. Stuff in space, which I’ve mentioned before, has a tendency to do unpredictable things. Space junk is a genuine problem. A few years ago, an object put a dangerous dent in one of NASA’s space shuttles. The object in question? A fleck of paint. All these bits of busted satellite, in fine Newtonian fashion, are now ideal objects for causing further collisions and damage, which could lead to further debris, which could lead to further collisions, etc…

Wow, causality is a bitch…