New York, October 17
In a big relief, two large pieces of orbital debris barely avoided colliding with each other this week although the chances of a smashup were calculated to be over 10 per cent by California-based space tracking company LeoLabs.
The two bodies, a dead Russian satellite and a spent Chinese rocket body, have a combined mass of about 2,800 kgs, LeoLabs said.
Space debris
A collision of the two objects would have created a huge cloud of debris as they were hurtling toward each other with a relative velocity of 52,950 kilometres per hour, Space.com reported on Friday.
According to astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who is based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a collision of the two objects would likely have led to a "significant (10 to 20 per cent) increase in the LEO (low Earth orbit) debris environment." The close approach of the two objects occurred at 1256 GMT on Friday.
The two objects were named Cosmos 2004 and CZ-4C R/B.
"Our latest data confirms Cosmos 2004 is still intact. Our final risk assessment showed a computed miss distance of 11 meters (+16/-11 meters at 1-sigma uncertainty). More to come next week as we will share a more detailed risk analysis of this event," LeoLabs said in a tweet on Friday. IANS
Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.
1
8
9