Thank you! This is exactly what I wanted to understand about the damaged satellites. You’re so good at calmly explaining things that are quite complicated… at least for me.
Thanks so much for the kind words! So many people aren't aware what's going on up in space - I just enjoy learning about it myself and sharing! Thanks for watching!
Great exploration of space! Learned a lot. Watched the last few SpaceX launches. Too bad about the satellites. Keep them coming... Patrick! 🚀🚀🚀 #TooTheMoon
Earths poles are on an UNPRECEDENTED “Excursion”, dropping earths Magnetic Shield/Field down approx. 20% by 2025 according to current trends. This is why so a Low Lebel CME could knock down satellites.
We are moving into a Grand Solar Minimum, this will be quite an issue . A 400 Year Cycle, last one the Thames river froze solid , the people were able to have ice fairs on the Thames. ( Look it up, it's like clockwork )
Thanks for your efforts to understand the cause of the failure of the SpaceX launch of StarLink satellites. Looking at the NASA space weather website, I could not find any data supporting the hypothesis that a coronal mass ejection (CME) reached Earth's upper atmosphere at the time of the launch. If the air density had been increased due to any earlier CME event, this 50% increase should have been detectable through other means, such as other satellites experiencing a similar increase in aerodynamic drag. If such an earlier CME event was the cause, then similar events and related satellite launch failures should be avoidable with better space weather monitoring.
@eric Spencer So far, 38 of the 49 satellites have apparently deorbited and burned up as they re-entered the lower atmosphere, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute who tracks space activity. The question remains, however, as to what accounted for the 50% denser upper atmosphere responsible for the failure of the 38, since the space weather website did not show any unusual readings in solar radiation at the time. If the solar radiation / storm that supposedly accounted for the 50% increase in density occurred say 24 hours earlier, then the question would be "why wasn't the 50% increase in the drag known about in advance and the launch postponed accordingly?" Something seems to be missing in the explanation. Perhaps SpaceX really doesn't yet know the root cause of the failures and we will learn more as SpaceX learns more. I think it would also be important to understand why 11 of the satellites are still up there; that is, how did these remaining 11 escape the fate of the 38 that were unable to even reorient themselves after they were placed into their lowest drag orientation.
I'm interested in hearing more from SpaceX. The CME hit the day after launch - how big is the "window" where something like this would have an effect? I can probably look to see how long the satellites stay at this altitude before starting top raise. If it's only a few days it's a pretty small window of risk, but unfortunately a CME can reach us in a few days so probably not possible to predict in advance. I expect you're right and they'll probably have a combination of launching higher and responding more quickly with thrusters if it happens again.
I DO love analogies :) I can't take credit for this one - NASA produced this post 7 years ago for "CME week" www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/the-difference-between-flares-and-cmes Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the update and explanation on what occurred. From all the news on this incident, they just say sats destroyed and the bad of what happened. As you say it is a greater way of explaining it. Stay safe and continue to reach for the stars for us.
I was curious of the difference myself so did lots of reading :) It's also possible to have a CME without a solar flare! I read this book a while ago www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/39863280-48-hours (fiction) which talks a lot about Carrington and kinda doomsday scenarios from the sun.
I agree with you but the truth is we can barely take care of ourselves so I don’t think there is much of protecting ourselves just observing Love your content !
Very interesting topic no one talks about Peru and those signs made on the ground dude on joe rogan said those are cme and it looks like stick figures crazy stuff man
The cme that hit that date was not that big. The issue is that the earths magnetic field has been reducing, with poles shifting away over the last recorded 100 years. NOAA has freely available data/maps of the poles starting from the early 1900s. The poles have progressively shifted. The south magnetic pole is not even on the Antarctic continent anymore. The effects of cmes will only get worse if the pole continues to shift.
Yeah, the Sun's magnetic poles flip regularly. If we're heading for a geomagnetic reversal on Earth then we're probably heading for a bad time. It looks like the effect on Earth would be pretty severe. Let's get some humans to Mars as an off-site backup :)
@@MikeOnSpace hehe I'm not sure it would help. So far, all the planets are undergoing magnetic field changes, one of the goals of the Mercury orbiters is to study the field to see if it is changing too. I've always had a thought that the magnetic fields of the planets were due to induction from somewhere else, maybe at a galaxy level? Hard to measure such things to know for sure.
Bad news… I thought star-link satellites 🛰 can handle this kind of drag with krypton ion thrusters to increase the orbit. As you mentioned if the solar wind is increasing then that will be very big set back for spaceX
Yeah agreed. This is the area I wasn't quite sure on. From the update it wasn't clear if the thrusters weren't powerful enough, or that the software wasn't set up to fire them to compensate for the drag properly. Either way, they'll have to do something. Hopefully just a matter to reconfiguring the software to handle it!
@@MikeOnSpace The main problem was they had moved the 49 sats into safe mode to avoid the CME effect. To move them back into operational position, they used reaction wheels, and these were not powerful enough to tilt the satellites back into normal mode. Scott Manley has a video on this topic: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9kIcEFyEPgA.html
That would protect from impact to the electronics, but in this case it was actually a physical impact with the higher-temperature atmosphere so shielding wouldn't have helped with this particular issue. Thanks for watching - great to see you again!
Geostationary satellites are far above Starlink satellites, so why we did not ear anything about damages to them? Geostationary satellites has golden foils wrapped around their electronic. Did SpaceX used the same technique?
Satelites further away from our magnetosphere did not encounter the higher atmospheric density created by the CME and subsequent heat. Only very low orbits did.
Yeah, when I first saw the news I thought this was due to interference with electronics from the radiation (which would be stronger in GEO) but in this case the slightly less sensation cause was atmospheric drag from the heated atmosphere. That atmosphere isn't an issue all the way out in GEO. I know a lot of LEO satellites have been using regular commercial electronics lately (Planet Laps, SpaceX, etc.) I'm curious to see if that causes them problems as we get to solar cycle peak activity!
@@bob_frazier Those very low orbit, like Starlink, are NOT in our atmosphere! They are ABOVE: more than 100 km. At this altitude, I can't imagine heat propagation till having this devastating effect! May be the electronic of the gaz propulsion system (the Krypton Hall-effect thrusters) has been affected? Hence Deorbiting the satellites?
I think this failure is due to the geomagnetic field weakening because we are in the midst of a magnetic pole reversal. Perhaps if our Geomagnetic field were as strong as it was a few years ago, this may not have happened. Make no mistake. We are experiencing a pole reversal and it is only just starting. The magnetic field protecting earth and these satellites is going to get much weaker over the next few years if the poles continue to migrate at the rate they are now.
The "geodynamo" is chaotic. We cannot know for sure if we are experiencing a pole reversal, until it actually happens. It looks like it is happening, but it can stop any time and go back to "normal". The geomagnetic poles have always moved like crazy, look up Laschamp_event on wikipedia.
@@adamrak7560 that's assuming the hero dynamo effect is really a thing. It's only a theory and has not been proven. I'm familiar with it but I have issues with it. Like organized currents of charged particles creating the magnetic field. Charged particles cannot organize like that in such hot conditions.
So my question is, does this solar activity have any effect on our climate? Are there any indications that these activities follow any form of cycles? If these activities do in fact effect our daily weather and climate cycles, just what can we expect our efforts to reduce carbon emissions is going to accomplish in 'regulating' our climate?
This activity has a cycle of 11 years, started in 2019 for this one, meaning expect the peak around 2025. Scientific measures concluded that this have no or minor effect on human, but has a huge effects on electronics, electric grids and radio propagation. Pushing our magnotosphere (the magnetic sphere that protects our planet against radiations) to its lower limit. This has nothing to do with the climate change.
It's a menagerie of a bunch of things happening all at once. One important one is the weakening magnetosphere. Weaker magnetosphere means more cosmic rays. Planets and stars seek energy balance. As the cosmic environment changes, earth will change with it to maintain an energy balance.
@@consultantntic4056 There has been numerous studies on the effects of solar activity on humans. Mental and physical effects. We all have EM bodies. Changes in the sun change the electromagnetic environment.
@@chrisparker2118 I agree with you, this is why I EMPHASIZED on the word SCIENTIFIC. When you go behind the science and took human as the replica of the universe, you will notice that: - the head is the sun ( Fire) - the chest is for the air - the abdomen is for the liquid ( Water) - and the feet, that have no air, no liquid, dried are assimilated to to the Earth All of these are animated by the magnetism emerging from the Corona point above our head, to the earth thru our feet: the same scenario as any planet. As we are moving between negative ions (on the earth surface) and the positive one from above (the base of the clouds), we are also an electric generator. So yes,you are so right! But for the moment, science doesn't study these effects!
@@consultantntic4056 Yup. I never seen it put that way. I get it though. It's just like all organs that support the preservation of the body are in the lower half, connected to the earth. All organs that support the preservation of the mind, are in the upper half and connected to the sky. Mankind is the marriage of the masculine and the feminine.
I really don't know anything but I'm wondering if increased density maybe you could add some kind of balloon propellant that opens and allows it to rise through the on slot of the density that arrives. Maybe it would have to open on the ladder half, after the main surge has arrived and it would suck it back out to space. Okay that's my contribution to mankind today I'll go away now 😂
It's certainly not MY specialty. I've heard of tests using mylar balloons to slow down and de-orbit a satellite - not what they'd want in this case. Could be something though! Thanks for watching!
From this particular CME, there should be no effect on the James Web. JWT is in the L2 Lagrange point which puts the Earth in between the telescope and the Sun. Hopefully that will shield it from the worst of anything coming from the Sun. Also, this CME wasn't that strong. It was just bad timing that those Starlink satellites were still in such a low orbit and were affected by the heated atmosphere.
Mike, Scott Manly did a good video about this. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9kIcEFyEPgA.html. He explained that the increased density of the warmed atmosphere prevented the satellites from even orientating themselves to prepare for raising their orbits.
Yeah, I love Scott's videos! It is hard to speculate without more info from SpaceX, but the inability to orient properly to even USE the thrusters would definitely be fatal. That's probably also harder to overcome just with smarter software. They may just have to launch higher. Thanks for watching!
1:12 A solar flare does NOT "send energy in all directions", only that direction from where it came from on the surface of the Sun, ~1% of all directions! So, 99% of solar flares to not reach the Earth! ... 1:20 NOT at the speed of light. We know a few minutes for the radiation reaches us by observing black spots....... 5:10 That CME you saw is 90° off the direction of the Earth. CME hitting Earth fire form near the center of the image, difficult to see on that camera. ... later in the video, much better explained. Well done.
We are moving into a Grand Solar Minimum, this will be quite an issue . A 400 Year Cycle, last one the Thames river froze solid , the people were able to have ice fairs on the Thames. ( Do you see this Cycle causing major Issues ? )
Oops. Guess these Techno Gods still have a WEE bit to learn. Scary, when you look at all the creepy things they are currently doing to play God in every way....
SpaceX deploys in these very low-altitude orbits specifically to reduce space junk. Anything goes wrong, the satellites just burn up to nothing. Those 40 satellites are already burning up - no space junk remaining!
You asked if us humans are doing enough to protect ourselves from the devastating events, and that made me laugh a little for a reason. Us humans, always try to think we can overpower an event of nature itself and that we are so special under so many circumstances whether it's, because we are intelligent, or we are somehow some random creation of an idol deity it something, or we just think it to feel special. Truth is: no weren't not. We have tried to overpower aggressive events of nature itself so many times before, yet it didn't work out the way we wanted. We still perish trying to overpower something much more powerful than us. Hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and everything much more mainly weather related and even, medically and health related such as the Coronavirus Pandemic. So, you asked if we are prepared to handle such devastating events. Answer is another question needed to be answered: do you think we can do it, or is it that we can't fight against an event far more powerful than us as a grain of sand? It's not about size. It's about the raw power we can't control. Trying to prevent the devastation of a Coronal Mass Ejection is as similar almost to trying to prevent an unstable Nuclear Reactor from detonation right as it about to detonate on nuclear reaction inside.
