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Mahesh

25/11/24 09:00 AM IST

Satellite space junk

In News
  • As the number of satellites goes up, so will this pollution. And some scientists are very worried.
Pollution by satellites
  • 10% of the aerosol particles in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals that originated from the burn-up of satellites, and rocket stages during reentry.
  • Emissions of aluminum and nitrogen oxides from satellite reentries significantly increased from 3.3 billion grams in 2020 to 5.6 billion grams in 2022.
  • Also on the rise were emissions from rocket launches, which leave pollutants such as black carbon, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, aluminum oxide and a variety of chlorine gases.
Impact of satellite pollution
  • While pollution from burnt-up satellites high up in the atmosphere is seemingly a distant concern for humans, it might lead to ripple effects that will change the chemistry of the atmosphere.
  • This is not good news. Life on Earth has evolved over billions of years to adjust to the planet’s specific environment, and even miniscule changes could trigger massive chaos on the planet.
  • Scientists are particularly concerned about the impact of this pollution on the ozone layer in Earth’s stratosphere.
  • This layer absorbs up to 99% of ultraviolet rays from the Sun, which would otherwise harm living organisms on Earth’s surface.
  • But pollutants from burnt-up spacecraft are likely already harming it. Aluminum oxide, for instance, is a known catalyst for ozone depletion.
  • This would be major new threat to the ozone layer especially in the light of the success of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which banned production and emissions of known ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), previously used as a common refrigerant.
  • Copper and other metals released during the incineration of spacecraft wiring and alloys are known to be powerful catalysts for chemical reactions in the atmosphere.
  • Among other things, those metals could promote the creation of the tiny particles that act as the seeds of clouds.
Source- Indian Express

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