Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more satellites have been launched than during the first thirty years of the Space Age. Much of this activity is driven by SpaceX and its growing megaconstellation of Starlink internet satellites.
Environmentalists have raised many concerns about Starlink including
light-pollution of the night sky, a potentially hazardous
traffic jam in low-Earth orbit, and even
ozone depletion. Copycat megaconstellations by other companies and countries will only multiply these concerns.
Now there's a new reason to worry. According to
a new study by Sierra Solter, megaconstellations could alter and weaken Earth's magnetic field.
Solter is a graduate student at the University of Iceland, working on her PhD in plasma physics. She recently realized something overlooked by many senior colleagues:
"More than 500,000 satellites are expected in decades ahead, primarily to build internet megaconstellations. Every satellite that goes up will eventually come down, disintegrating in Earth's atmosphere.
This will create a massive layer of conducting, electrically charged particles around our planet."
Comment: Something which is continually adding charged electric particles to Earth's near environment is atmospheric dust loading from increased comet and volcanic activity. For those who have followed SOTT over the years it is clear that there is a great uptick in cometary activity in recent years. This has happened before and is something which Laura Knight-Jadczyk has written extensively about. From a recent article by her
The Cosmic Context of Greek Philosophy, Part Two
Here, I would like to say something about the problem of transmission of information. We are talking here about a main event 13,000 or more years ago, and then numerous subsequent events that either included actual physical bombardment of the planet, or events that consisted of dust loading and related climate stress with probable frequent meteor storms.
From the same article:
the absence of sunlight due to cometary dust loading and consequent crop failure.
So whether the dust loading comes from meteors, volcanoes or as suggested in this article from disintegrating satellites, then increased dustloading can have a devastating effect on life here on earth.
Comment: Something which is continually adding charged electric particles to Earth's near environment is atmospheric dust loading from increased comet and volcanic activity. For those who have followed SOTT over the years it is clear that there is a great uptick in cometary activity in recent years. This has happened before and is something which Laura Knight-Jadczyk has written extensively about. From a recent article by her The Cosmic Context of Greek Philosophy, Part Two From the same article: So whether the dust loading comes from meteors, volcanoes or as suggested in this article from disintegrating satellites, then increased dustloading can have a devastating effect on life here on earth.