On Wednesday, Jan. 29, two uncontrolled space satellites will likely hit each other along their passage above Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, according to a space debris tracking team.
Two reported satellites will collide soon and can be the most dangerous one
The two said satellites were identified as the "IRAS (13777), the decommissioned space telescope launched in 1983, and GGSE-4 (2828), an experimental US payload launched in 1967."
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the space tracker team called Leo Labs Inc. tweeted an announcement of a 'close approach' between the two old space satellites. According to the tweet, the numbers were alarming as the predicted miss distance between the two is only 15 to 30 meters in the air. This means that anytime soon, they might badly hit each other.
The weight of both satellites also became one of the concerning problems since the IRAS satellite has 1,083 kg or 2,388 pounds that can occupy a space of 3.6 by 3.24 by 2.05 meters (11.8 by 10.6 by 6.7 feet). Meanwhile, GGSE-4 is a much smaller satellite that only has 4.5 kilograms or equivalent to 10 pounds.
Since the two satellites were launched for a very long time, both satellites do not have any communication with any space station, which makes them hard to maneuver to avoid its future collision.
However, Leo Labs Inc. predicted that the two satellites might collide with each other on just nearly 1 to 100. Still, close monitoring of both satellites must be done, according to the team.
"Events like this highlight the need for responsible, timely deorbiting of satellites for space sustainability moving forward. We will continue to monitor this event through the coming days and provide updates as available," tweeted Leo Labs Inc.
How huge the impact can this collision might be?
Though the space debris tracking team already said that only 1 to 100 could be the possibility of a big collision between the two satellites, space experts explained that this might be the most dangerous space collision in history.
Space archaeologist Alice Gorman of Flinders University said on Science Alert that once the two old satellites collide to each other, a large amount of debris might be created.
"Spacecraft have taken evasive maneuvers to avoid things that are only within 60 kilometers. So this is a really, really close encounter. And if this does actually come to pass, there's potentially a large amount of debris that will be created," said Gorman.
Adding that, "this is one of one of the most dangerous possible collisions that we've seen for some time."
Pittsburgh satellite collision will not harm people
Importantly, Gorman also reiterated that the falling debris would no longer be seen on the ground. The crash-- if ever created-- will no longer have any possibilities of harming anyone in the Earth.
"They're going to be colliding at an incredibly high speed. And at that speed, it's going to probably cause the smaller satellite to break up completely into smaller fragments. And each of those fragments becomes a piece of space debris in its own right," Gorman explained.
