Aliens or Satellites Burning Up?
(www.youtube.com)
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Almost exponential growth over that time period. Any space gurus here? I'm wondering about the direction these satellites go in... most seem to orbit west to east (retrograde), probably because of the effects of gravity? But then if you watch the early portion of the video, we see 3 or 4 of them going the opposite way, east to west, going along WITH the earth's rotational direction.
Why the difference? Why do only a handful orbit with the earth's rotation, while most of them are in the opposite, retrograde direction?
They're moving too fast for satellites. We're flying through the debris field of 3i Atlas. Two of the recovered pieces of the meteors look very similar. FWIW, there's also been a string of deaths/disappearances of people working on near earth asteroids. As much observation we have, we're essentially flying blind through space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbeokLw-ZCo
Agreed
'splain for a five-year old, plz. People working on near Earth Asteroids - wut?
You might be thinking his username checks out, right? He probably means the Near-Earth Object Program.
right I was like: "Astronauts walking on asteroids, mining them or somethin, and getting left in space to die" because of some technical SNAFU.
Going from West to East is prograde, not retrograde. The Earth rotates to the East. The sun and stars appear to go from East to West when viewed from the Earth because we are moving the opposite direction. Satellites typically travel eastward because they gain speed from the rotation of the Earth. For orbital physics the velocity needed is independent of the rotation of the Earth, not relative to it. So the starting speed of the Earth’s rotation aids a prograde orbit and hampers a retrograde orbit.
Right you are, I was operating on only one cup of coffee when I wrote that. But the question remains, why are a few of the visible satellites at the beginning of the vid going in the opposite direction of the majority of satellites?
There are satellites that orbit East to West. It just takes more fuel to get them into orbit. Likewise with polar orbits.
Satellite Tracker 3D (Real Time Visual) https://satellitetracker3d.com/