That’s 5400 cubic meters of aluminum. That’s 5.6 * 10^6 kilograms. Picture a cargo ship flattened into a disk; that’s the order of mass we’re talking about.
Deorbiting it would probably make for an exciting show. Also, I wonder how much aluminum you can dump into the atmosphere before you have effects.
Within 15 years, plummeting satellites could release enough aluminum to alter winds, temps in the stratosphere
Estimates suggest satellite debris could rival the amount of naturally occurring meteor dust in the atmosphere by 2040.
At that rate, a satellite would burn up in the atmosphere every one to two days, depositing 10,000 metric tons of alumina in the upper atmosphere. That’s equivalent to about 150 space shuttles vaporizing in the atmosphere every year.
The new study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, suggests that much alumina could alter polar vortex speeds, heat up parts of the mesosphere by as much as 1.5 degrees Celsius, and impact the ozone layer. The metal aerosols and other particles vaporized from falling satellites would likely circulate in the stratosphere for several years, according to the authors.
Spacecraft have a lot of exotic material in them, right? I guess aluminum is the big one by mass, but I bet there’s enough of others for interesting effects, too.
Deorbiting it would probably make for an exciting show. Also, I wonder how much aluminum you can dump into the atmosphere before you have effects.
kagis
Oooh.
https://csl.noaa.gov/news/2025/427_0428.html
That’s fascinating.
Spacecraft have a lot of exotic material in them, right? I guess aluminum is the big one by mass, but I bet there’s enough of others for interesting effects, too.