orbital debris articles
What is one of the primary sources of space debris?
The accumulation of defunct human-made objects orbiting our planet represents an escalating hazard to every active satel...
What does orbital debris mean?
The seemingly infinite void above our atmosphere is, in reality, quite cluttered. When we talk about **orbital debris**,...
What makes satellites orbit the Earth?
The simple visual of a machine circling our world often conjures the question of how it manages to hang suspended in the...
Are there satellites in low Earth orbit?
The region we call Low Earth Orbit, or LEO, is currently the busiest highway in space, densely populated with functionin...
What does it mean to clear an orbit of debris?
The concept of "clearing an orbit of debris" sounds straightforward—like sweeping up litter in a park—but in the realm o...
What is the remaining debris from a supernova called?
The material left behind after a star meets its dramatic end—a supernova explosion—is known by a specific name: the **su...
What is the best explanation for the close-in orbits of hot Jupiters?
The discovery of exoplanets radically reshaped our understanding of planetary systems, but few findings were as surprisi...
What is a small piece of debris that burns up in the atmosphere?
That fleeting streak of light cutting across the night sky, often called a "shooting star," is a spectacular, brief perf...
What is the apparent path of the Sun along the celestial sphere or equivalently the plane determined by the Earth's orbit called?
The apparent path traced by the Sun across the background stars over the course of a year, which also corresponds to the...