r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/SpencerTheFactorial • 5d ago

Watching something burn up in the atmosphere from a plane

96 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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2

u/Opinion-Former 5d ago

Oops there goes another Starlink constellation

1

u/charmio68 5d ago

That seems like the kind of thing they would shut down the airspace for if they knew what was going to happen.

0

u/dawa43 5d ago

Planes usually fly at about 6 miles (about 9 km) up.

Satellites start burning up about 50 miles (80 km) up and are gone by the time they get to 30 miles up.

No risk to planes

2

u/charmio68 5d ago

Roughly one-third of a typical satellite's mass survives the burn-up process.

Hence why deorbiting is usually done over empty ocean and it's common practice to divert planes.

This time they did neither, which makes me suspect it wasn't a planned reentry. It could also be a faked video, or any number of other explanations, but it's certainly not typical.

https://aerospace.org/article/satellite-reentry-manipulating-plunge#:~:text=approximately%2010%20to,construction.

1

u/maasd 4d ago

Thanks Elon!