Showing posts with label Orbit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orbit. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2026

Are there concrete plans to remove old satellites and debris from Earth's orbit?

 Plans were circulated, but it turns out to be a devilishly difficult problem to solve, incredibly expensive, and not as big as most people think.

Most satellites are properly disposed of these days. Satellites in low Earth orbit either re-enter the atmosphere on their own due to air resistance or are intentionally removed from their orbit towards the end of their lifespan. Satellites in geosynchronous orbits are moved to a graveyard orbit where they cannot interfere with active satellites.

However, this doesn't mean that debris isn't a problem. Everything from loose cameras to paint splatters is floating around in Earth's orbit, and all of these things can be deadly if they hit an astronaut or satellite at orbital speeds.

The problem with collecting debris in space is that the large objects are easy to detect and avoid, while the really small objects - which can still be deadly - are extremely difficult to detect and therefore difficult to capture with a debris-collecting satellite.

The low-hanging fruit—which we'll probably do first—is moving satellites that die prematurely. When a satellite is placed into a geosynchronous orbit, the plan is always to move it to a graveyard orbit at the end of its life, but if the satellite dies prematurely, it's stuck where it is. If we could launch a cheap shuttle that would attach itself to the dead satellite and move it to the graveyard orbit where it was meant to end up, that might be worth considering.

It's worth noting that every single graphic that attempts to show the "crowded" space around the Earth is misleading. Consider images like this one:

...and this...

These images give the impression that we can barely squeeze in another satellite. The problem is that each of these graphics massively overestimates the size of the satellites.

A typical satellite is about the size of an SUV, but in the second image above, it's depicted as if all the satellites were the size of the greater Atlanta area. In the first image, the satellites are the size of several countries. I understand why they do this—if they showed the satellites to scale, you wouldn't be able to see them—but most people take these graphics at face value.

Space debris is not yet a crisis, but it is something we need to think about, and thankfully some people are.

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Is it true that Jupiter is so big that it doesn't orbit the sun?

 Yes!

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. It's so massive that 1,300 Earths could fit inside it. Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all the other planets in our solar system combined!

This is our little earth compared to Jupiter:

Jupiter is so large that the center of gravity of the sun and Jupiter is outside the sun, although it is extremely close to the sun's surface.

So the Sun and Jupiter both orbit around their center of gravity, also known as the barycenter.

The barycenter is the center of mass of two or more bodies orbiting each other and is the point around which the bodies orbit.

Technically Jupiter orbits the center of the sun and Jupiter is outside the sun.

So yes! Jupiter is so big that it doesn't orbit the sun. Fascinating!

Now, other planets in the solar system are so small that the center of gravity of the sun and a planet like Earth are located inside the sun. (Even very close to the center of the sun.)

So it looks like other planets are orbiting the center of the sun.

Source: Baricentro - Wikipedia

To understand this, you can also imagine turning a child around like this:

(It could be dangerous. Just imagine.)

The center of gravity of you and the baby would be somewhere very close to your feet. So you're spinning almost in the same spot, but the baby is orbiting you. This is exactly what happens with the sun and the other planets.

By the way, this is how two stars with nearly the same mass orbit around their common center of gravity in a binary star system:

Center of gravity - Wikipedia

Monday, January 5, 2026

How does our solar system orbit the Milky Way, and why does it take 250 million years to complete one orbit?

 The solar system orbits the Milky Way galaxy at an average speed of about 828,000 kilometers per hour (515,000 miles per hour), taking approximately 230 million years to complete one full orbit around the galaxy's center. This journey is often referred to as a "galactic year."

If you could teleport instantly thousands of light years outside our galaxy and look down upon it with supertelescoping vision you might see something like this:

The Milky Way galaxy spins like water going down a drain with our local group in one arm halfway between the core and the outside edge at a distance of around 27,000 light years.

Our solar system orbits with the Sun dragging the other planets in tow, making the solar system look like it is flying sideways, always moving up since the solar system is tilted that way.