We live in an era of space exploration, in which a multitude of satellites and other elements are constantly launched into the orbit of our planet or into deeper space, and something as innocent as this can end up having catastrophic consequences.
We have a huge constellation of satellites around our planet, something that has already been controversial and criticized because astronomers claim that their observations of the sky are being blocked, and on the other hand, this space debris is then very difficult to eliminate.
And in a controversial study, which has yet to be reviewed, he suggests a catastrophic consequence for all those satellites that end up becoming space junk.
As these satellites burn up in our atmosphere, their magnetized dust could contaminate and weaken the magnetic field, a magnetic field that protects us from dangerous cosmic radiation.
“I was surprised by how much I found and that no one has been studying this,” said Sierra Solter-Hunt, the author and doctoral student at the University of Iceland. “I think it’s really alarming.”
He maintains that the amount of metallic particles in our atmosphere would have increased 1 million times since the beginning of the space age.
He notes that as more commercial satellites become available in the coming decades, this figure could multiply by 1 billion.
Most of the dust from these satellites accumulates in the upper region of the Earth called the ionosphere and could stay there “forever,” according to this study.
This could form a perfect conducting network around our planet that, if electrically charged, would prevent our protective geomagnetic field from extending beyond the ionosphere.
He adds that the outer edges of the atmosphere, which would no longer be completely protected by the geomagnetic field, could be destroyed by radiation from space, although it would be a process that would take many centuries.
However, many experts are skeptical about this new research: “Even with the spacecraft dust densities discussed, a continuous conductive layer as a true magnetic shield is unlikely,” said John Tarduno, a planetary scientist at the University of Rochester.
It would also be unclear whether there would ever be that many satellites in orbit, given that this study has taken into account 1 million.
In any case, other experts point out that the study has merit, and that until now very little attention has been paid to the issue of space debriswhich may end up becoming a problem for future generations.