• Saledovil
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    2 months ago

    When 2 satellites collide, the pieces don’t all stay on the same altitude. Even though none of them will be in a stable orbit, all it takes is for one piece to smack into a satellite that’s a bit higher up before it de-orbits, and boom, now you’ve got a debris field that won’t de-orbit.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Pieces don’t gain kinetic energy in a collision. Even if they collide and get sent off in an “upwards” direction, it’s not up very far relative to the orbit, and that’s just a less circular orbit at lower speed that will burn up even faster

      For you scenario to work, there would have to be a chain reaction

      • collision, sending a few pieces upwards
      • during that small number of orbits they survive, collision, sending a few pieces upward
      • repeat many times

      Each chance is remote enough, and ricocheting pieces only go so far, and any higher satellites they could reach are also low orbit, that I can’t imagine how remote the chances of this happening are

      Kessler syndrome is a real worry, but not in this low orbit