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A Starlink satellite broke apart in orbit after suffering an unexplained "anomaly"
(www.scientificamerican.com)
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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
186 points (99.5% liked)
Mildly Interesting
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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
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The more satellites are up there, the higher the chance one is obliterated by space junk or meteorites. The more obliterated satellites, the more space junk.
It's going to be a massacre.
The actual name of this phenomenon is "the Kepler effect"
Its where the decades of space junk, grow to such a degree that they keep hitting other satellites and becomes the equivalent of a pinball machine with other satellites.
Its a big issue many have tried to solve
It's Kessler Syndrome, in case anyone wants to read up on it.