Growing Threat of Space Debris

Intro

The space around Earth is a crowded space packed with nearly 22,000 spent rocket stages, dead or dying satellites and countless crumbs of human-made orbital flotsam. An average of one object has reentered Earth's atmosphere every day.
Here are 10 of the most memorable manmade things that have rained down on us.

Satellite Shootdown

Credit: Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy intercepted its defunct spy satellite USA-193 on Feb. 20, 2008, sending a trail of debristhat some amateur astronomers reported falling over the northwestern United States and Canada. Department of Defense officials said they hadn't recovered any debris larger than a football.

Noggin' Knocker

Credit: NASA

A woman in Turley, Oklahoma, got a noggin-knock in January 1997 when she was struck with a lightweight fragment of charred woven material. She was not injured. The sky junk was identified as debris from a Delta 2 booster, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 22, 1997. Other debris from that booster included a steel propellant tank and a titanium pressure sphere.

Mystery Ball

Credit: NASA

Several mysterious spheres turned up in Australia in the 1960s, with some speculating these balls could be connected with UFO phenomenon. One such titanium sphere was spotted in Merkanooka, Western Australia. Dubbed the Merkanooka ball, the metal sphere was later identified as a tank used for drinking water in the Gemini V spacecraft, which was launched on Aug. 21, 1965, and reentered the atmosphere and splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 29 that year.

Toxic Touchdown

Credit: NASA

A secret Soviet-navy satellite called Cosmos 954, which was launched on Sept. 18, 1977, spiraled out of control. The spy radar antennas each sported a compact nuclear reactor, making the reentry one of the most frightening to date for people on the ground. On Jan. 24, 1978, Cosmos 954 reentered over Canada and shed debris across the frozen ground of the Canadian Arctic. Following the crash, the U.S. and Canada conducted overflights of the area and associated cleanup efforts.

Desert Dropdown

Credit: NASA

On Jan. 21, 2001, a Delta 2 third stage, known as a PAM-D (Payload Assist Module-Delta), reentered the atmosphere over the Middle East. Its titanium motor casing, weighing about 154 pounds (70 kilograms), slammed down in Saudi Arabia, while a titanium pressurant tank landed near Seguin, Texas, and the main propellant tank plunked down near Georgetown, Texas.

 

 

 

 

Credit: NASA

In May 1966, spacecraft debris was spotted in the Rio Negro District of Brazil. The metal parts were identified as coming from a stage of the Saturn development test (SA-5) that launched in 1964 and which reentered the atmosphere on April 30, 1966. The litterincluded a piece of lightweight metal, an oval-shaped chunk of metal, a black beehive-shaped structure and four pieces of fragile wire.

 

 

 

Columbia Debris

Credit: NASA

On Feb. 1, 2003, during its return to Earth, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry, killing seven astronauts. The catastrophic, lethal accident shed thousands of pieces of debris across a 28,000 square mile (72,520 square kilometers) area in eastern Texas and western Louisiana. More than 80,000 recovered pieces were stored for follow-up research.

 

 

 

Credit: NASA

After completing 51,658 orbits around Earth, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was intentionally deorbited due to a crippled gyroscope on June 4, 2000. As the spacecraft tumbled through Earth's atmosphere, its solar panels and antennas were thought to pop off first, while other parts likely melted. About 13,227 pounds (6,000 kilograms) of debris from the observatory splashed down into the Pacific Ocean southeast of Hawaii.

 

 

 

Credit: NASA

In the world of space litter, the heavyweight champ would have to be Mir, heftier in its day than any object (except the moon) to orbit Earth. The 15-year-old Russian space station began its suicidal nosedive on March 23, 2001, as it reentered Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean near Fiji. Though most of the station, weighing 286,600 pounds (130,000 kilograms), burned up in the atmosphere, about 1,500 fragments reached Earth's surface. Beachgoers in Nadi, Fiji, snapped photos of blazing bits of Mir debris and there were reports of sonic booms caused by heavy debris.

 

 

 

 

Credit: NASA

Weighing in at 77 tons (70,000 kilograms), the first and only solely-U.S. space station Skylab launched into orbit on May 14, 1973. Its orbiting operations came to a premature end on July 11, 1979, when Skylab plummeted through the atmosphere, sending chunks of debris raining down over an area stretching from the Southeastern Indian Ocean across a sparsely populated section of Western Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The science of love

When do you know if you fancy someone? What does love do to your brain chemicals, and is falling in love just nature's way to keep our species alive? We call it love. It feels like love. But the most exhilarating of all human emotions is probably nature’s beautiful way of keeping the human species alive and reproducing. With an irresistible cocktail of chemicals, our brain entices us to fall in love. We believe we’re choosing a partner. But we may merely be the happy victims of nature’s lovely plan. It’s not what you say... Psychologists have shown it takes between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if you fancy someone. Research has shown this has little to do with what is said, rather 55% is through body language 38% is the tone and speed of their voice Only 7% is through what they say

The 3 stages of love Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in the States has proposed 3 stages of love – lust, attraction and attachment. Each stage might be driven by different hormones and chemicals. Stage 1: Lust This is the first stage of love and is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen – in both men and women. Stage 2: Attraction This is the amazing time when you are truly love-struck and can think of little else. Scientists think that three main neurotransmitters are involved in this stage; adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. Adrenaline The initial stages of falling for someone activates your stress response, increasing your blood levels of adrenalin and cortisol. This has the charming effect that when you unexpectedly bump into your new love, you start to sweat, your heart races and your mouth goes dry. Dopamine Helen Fisher asked newly ‘love struck’ couples to have their brains examined and discovered they have high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This chemical stimulates ‘desire and reward’ by triggering an intense rush of pleasure. It has the same effect on the brain as taking cocaine! Fisher suggests “couples often show the signs of surging dopamine: increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention and exquisite delight in smallest details of this novel relationship” . Serotonin And finally, serotonin. One of love's most important chemicals that may explain why when you’re falling in love, your new lover keeps popping into your thoughts. Does love change the way you think? A landmark experiment in Pisa, Italy showed that early love (the attraction phase) really changes the way you think. Dr Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatrist at the University of Pisa advertised for twenty couples who'd been madly in love for less than six months. She wanted to see if the brain mechanisms that cause you to constantly think about your lover, were related to the brain mechanisms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. By analysing blood samples from the lovers, Dr Marazitti discovered that serotonin levels of new lovers were equivalent to the low serotonin levels of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients. Love needs to be blind Newly smitten lovers often idealise their partner, magnifying their virtues and explaining away their flaws says Ellen Berscheid, a leading researcher on the psychology of love. New couples also exalt the relationship itself. “It's very common to think they have a relationship that's closer and more special than anyone else's”. Psychologists think we need this rose-tinted view. It makes us want to stay together to enter the next stage of love – attachment. Stage 3: Attachment Attachment is the bond that keeps couples together long enough for them to have and raise children. Scientists think there might be two major hormones involved in this feeling of attachment; oxytocin and vasopressin. Oxytocin - The cuddle hormone Oxytocin is a powerful hormone released by men and women during orgasm. It probably deepens the feelings of attachment and makes couples feel much closer to one another after they have had sex. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes. Oxytocin also seems to help cement the strong bond between mum and baby and is released during childbirth. It is also responsible for a mum’s breast automatically releasing milk at the mere sight or sound of her young baby. Diane Witt, assistant professor of psychology from New York has showed that if you block the natural release of oxytocin in sheep and rats, they reject their own young. Conversely, injecting oxytocin into female rats who’ve never had sex, caused them to fawn over another female’s young, nuzzling the pups and protecting them as if they were their own. Vasopressin Vasopressin is another important hormone in the long-term commitment stage and is released after sex. Vasopressin (also called anti-diuretic hormone) works with your kidneys to control thirst. Its potential role in long-term relationships was discovered when scientists looked at the prairie vole. Prairie voles indulge in far more sex than is strictly necessary for the purposes of reproduction. They also – like humans - form fairly stable pair-bonds. When male prairie voles were given a drug that suppresses the effect of vasopressin, the bond with their partner deteriorated immediately as they lost their devotion and failed to protect their partner from new suitors. And finally … how to fall in love Find a complete stranger. Reveal to each other intimate details about your lives for half an hour. Then, stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes. York psychologist, Professor Arthur Arun, has been studying why people fall in love. He asked his subjects to carry out the above 3 steps and found that many of his couples felt deeply attracted after the 34 minute experiment. Two of his subjects later got married.