Why do things (like space debris) fall out of orbit?

Similar questions: things space debris fall orbit.

They don't They don't just fall out of orbit. They're already falling, but with enough forward velocity so they keep advancing around the curve of the planet as to miss it all the time. If something slows them down then they will miss the planet by less, effectively lowering their orbit altitude.

If their altitude gets to be below about 150 miles, then there is a teensy bit of drag from the atmosphere and they start losing forward velocity. In the case of the two satellites that collided, they hit each other at an angle so a good part of their velocity was converted into heat, and the remaining pieces lost altitude. Apparently some pieces lost enough altitude to re-enter the atmosphere and land in Texas..

Eventually, unless they are far enough away and have enough motion and speed (the moon) they will fall into the gravity well of the Earth and burn up on re-entry. Of course, if they are large enough, they may only partially burn up. Now then, depending on the distance from the planet, the angular momentum and the mass of the object, the length of the orbit decay may be quite a long period of time - years, decades or centuries.

Additionally, anything that gained momentum away from the earth in the impact will need to lose that momentum before it can start falling unless it received escape velocity. Schelli's Recommendations Physics For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)) Amazon List Price: $19.99 Used from: $9.06 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 17 reviews) Physics Workbook For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)) Amazon List Price: $19.99 Used from: $4.62 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 4 reviews) .

The main cause is drag from the atmosphere The atmosphere is very thin past 50 or 60 miles above the surface of the Earth, but it is still there. Even at hundreds of miles above the Earth. The higher the orbit, the thinner the atmosphere.

Satellites must travel very quickly to maintain their orbit. Most must orbit the Earth faster than the Earth turns. The atmosphere is part of the Earth, and even though it is very thin up where the satellites orbit, it still causes drag/friction on satellites.

This causes the satellites (or debris) to slow down. The lost of velocity causes the orbit to shrink (or decay). This brings the orbiting object closer to the Earth, where it is affected by even more atmosphere.

The closer it gets, the more drag it feels from the atmosphere, and the smaller its orbit gets. The cycle feeds on itself until the orbit shrinks so much that the orbit intersects the surface of the Earth. More and more junk is collecting in orbit.

Even our well trained astronauts still lose tool bags and other items in orbit. They continue to orbit, until atmospheric drag causes the orbit to decay enough that the item either burns up from friction with the lower atmosphere, or impacts the surface.

This is a guess: The orbital velocity, at the time of impact, that probably had something to do with the incident, is degraded after the collision. As the debris begin to decelerate, they lose altitude and respond appropriately to earth’s gravity. Some physicist will give you a better answer.

Sources: rednecksputter (redneck phillosopher). Read some.

Think of a rocket as a giant cannon; Newton did. Imagine that cannon shoots something, but gravity pulls it back to earth. Imagine that cannon shoots something so far that by the time gravity begins pulling it back down to earth, the earth isn't there anymore.

That's the moon that Newton chased down to establish the laws of gravity: an orbiting object is constantly falling, but its speed is such that it keeps missing the ground when it falls. Debris falls out of orbit when gravity pulls in the object and it begins to slow. Our moon is quarter million miles away, and is slowing imperceptibly.

Closer things like sattelites are even more likely to slow and eventually fall into our atmosphere and burn up.

" "Tell me about Space Viz please. " "What would be the best way to clean up space junk (debris)?" "Should we allow the weaponization of space? " "space savers are good for what?

" "If you had a space that was yours and yours alone..." "Space debris (See link below to news article.) or 'Planetary Defense System'? You decide . .. " "What can be done to clean up space debris?

If you had a space that was yours and yours alone...

Space debris (See link below to news article. ) or 'Planetary Defense System'? You decide ..

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.