this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Astronomy

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Screenshot of social media post. Reads, "Everyone was saying that the May geomag activity had no impact on the satellites. Of course we knew this was wrong. Over one hundred sats re-entered during this period and now a paper is showing that thousands of Starlinks had to move. Holy fuck. Imagine if those thousands had to re-enter. This. Is. Insane. We. Must. Stop. Launching. Shit. NOW. https://spaceweather.com/"

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Starlink sats are tiny - only ~260kg each. Even thousands re-entering would be comparable to what Earth naturally experiences from meteoroids (about 48 tons daily). The aluminium/composite materials aren't particularly exotic or harmful when they vaporize in the upper atmopshere. It's a non-issue compared to actual space debris concerns.