Astronomers said India’s decision to blow up one of its own satellites now is “terrible timing” due to the ongoing ‘solar minimum’. Last week, India said it had become a major space power after it took down one of its own satellites using anti-satellite weaponry. Previously, only China, Russia and the United States had been capable of taking down satellites.
The new anti-satellite missile system, the A-SAT, successfully targeted a live space satellite in low-orbit around the Earth.
However, astronomers are warning it was the worst possible timing to do so as the Sun is currently going through a solar minimum.
The Sun follows cycles of roughly 11 years where it reaches a solar maximum and then a solar minimum.
During a solar maximum, the Sun gives off more heat and is littered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in magnetic waves.
Another effect of the solar minimum is that the Earth’s atmosphere is thinner during this period, meaning there is less drag on satellites.
This means it was “terrible timing” to destroy a satellite, as it puts other satellites in space at risk – as well as astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
Website Space Weather stated: “Note to space powers: If you’re going to blow a satellite to bits, solar minimum is a terrible time to do it.
“India is grappling with this important truth today as debris from their March 27th anti-satellite weapons test spreads through space. As many as 6,500 pieces of the Microsat-R Earth observation satellite are now circling Earth.
“During solar minimum–happening now!–Earth’s upper atmosphere cools and contracts, sharply reducing aerodynamic drag that causes satellites to decay.
“Indeed, in 2019 the temperature of the thermosphere is close to a Space Age record low. This could double or triple the time required for fragments of the shattered satellite to sink into the atmosphere and disintegrate.
“Small fragments in high orbits may remain aloft for years, circling the planet like tiny bullets traveling 17,000 mph.
“India’s test at 300km altitude has created an upward spray of debris that could threaten the International Space Station only 100 km overhead.
“Low solar activity, which could last for years as the solar cycle ponderously swings through its minimum phase, will help keep these fragments aloft, prolonging their threat to other satellites.”
There is now believed to be an astonishing 170 million pieces of junk floating in Earth’s upper atmosphere, but only 22,000 are being tracked.
Some 7,000 tonnes of space junk circle our planet, as defunct satellites, junk from rockets and other metals and rocks build up close to Earth.
Technologies such as mobile phones, television, GPS and weather related services rely on satellites, so a cataclysmic series of crashes could pose a threat to our already over-reliance for satellites.
Jim Bridenstine, chief administrator at NASA, said the chance of space debris colliding with the ISS has now risen by an astonishing 44 percent thanks to India’s entry into the anti-satellite weaponry company.
However he said: “The international space station is still safe. If we need to manoeuvre it we will.”