The sun currently passes the peak stage of the current solar cycle, which is repeated every 11 years, and this period is usually characterized by an increase in strong solar storms due to the explosions on the surface of the sun.
Scientists believe that these phenomena make the upper part of the atmosphere expand, and with its expansion the satellites become vulnerable to stronger atmospheric friction in their orbits (called low ground orbits) through collision with the stretch atmosphere molecules.
Orbit
As a result, satellites slow down and decrease faster towards Earth, which is known as the phenomenon of “orientation”, a term in astronomical physics used to describe the gradual decrease of a body that revolves around the Earth (such as a satellite) due to friction with the Earth’s atmosphere or other factors, which ultimately leads to its fall towards the Earth.
3 solar physicists and satellite followers at the Juddard Center for NASA Space Flights and the Goddard Institute for Solar Physics at the University of Maryland American University found evidence indicating the satellites of Starlink’s satellites dating back to the Earth’s atmosphere faster during the increasing solar activity.
In their research paper – which has not yet been subjected to peer arbitration – the researchers studied more than 523 satellites from the company “Starlink” owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, and was followed between 2020 and 2024.
The results showed that the greater the solar activity, the greater the satellite landing and the lower times closer than expected.
The researchers pointed to the latest known situation in this context, which is the fall of dozens of satellites, and monitored pieces of their debris when they fell on a farm in Canada in 2024.
Effects may be disastrous
This unexpected fall of satellites raises the possibility of space debris that can reach the surface of the Earth before it burns, and this may pose a threat to people.
On the other hand, this increases the dangers of the accumulation of debris and perhaps the effect of Kisler, a theoretical scenario that the American scientist Donald Kissler was presented in 1978, and describes a situation that occurs when the number of space objects (such as satellites and debris) in the low -height Earth orbit becomes very large, so that one collision between them leads to a successive series of collisions that result in huge amounts of space debris, which leads to the destruction of the environment The orbital around the Earth and makes the nearby space unusable for years or even for decades.
The effect of Kisler is as follows:
- A collision occurs between two satellites or a satellite and a piece of debris.
- The collision produces hundreds or thousands of pieces of satellite fragments.
- These fragments are transmitted at huge speeds and hit other embodiment in orbit.
- Every new collision generates more debris.
- This series of collisions continues to expand in an unlimited manner.
In fact, the tropical speed of satellites reaches 27 thousand kilometers per hour, and therefore any small piece of debris may turn into a devastating shell.
This leads to Earth orbit pollution, which threatens every body in orbit around the Earth, and thus the research team calls on companies such as Starlink to reassess tasks, enhance the orbit control plans and time expected to fall, and coordinate with the competent space bodies to avoid the risk of random fall.