Why isn’t space junk visible in Artemis II photos
However, the photos shared by the Artemis II crew do not show this.
The Artemis II astronauts have completed a historic flyby of the Moon and have captured the photos to prove it. But as skywatchers continue to enjoy views of the Moon and Earth, one question is on the internet: If there’s such a problem with space junk orbiting our home planet, why isn’t it visible in any of the latest photos?
This may sound strange, but it’s somewhat understandable. After all, many astronomers and researchers continue to warn about the exponentially growing amount of debris surrounding Earth at any given time. In the absence of any effective solutions, there is growing concern about the possibility of a “Kessler cascade.”
In this case, the amount of space debris becomes so ubiquitous that collisions are inevitable. The debris, traveling at speeds of more than 17,500 miles per hour, smashes into each other, creating even smaller pieces of junk that increase the likelihood of similar events. All that orbital junk could make it very difficult to launch new satellites into space, send astronauts on missions, and even protect Earth’s inhabitants.
The answer has less to do with what exists in space than with what cameras can capture. Orbital debris is very real. Tens of thousands of objects have been tracked as they orbit Earth, and millions of smaller fragments are also moving around. They can range from defunct satellites to tiny pieces of debris hurtling through space at high speeds. However, most of them never show up in standard space photographs, as Popular Science magazine explains.
Speed makes it even more difficult to capture an image. Objects in orbit travel at speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour. Any object passing near a spacecraft would cross the camera’s field of view in a fraction of a second. Without specialized tracking or long exposure techniques, it would not appear as a defined object. At most, it would be visible as a faint band, if it appeared at all.
Much of the debris problem is concentrated in low Earth orbit, where satellites are densely packed. Artemis II, as it follows the lunar trajectory with the Orion spacecraft, spends much of its time outside this densely packed region. The further it travels from Earth, the less concentrated the human-made objects are, making it less likely that anything will appear in the frame.
Credits:
Image:
