The Sky is Falling

The recent demise of NASA’s satellite brings to light other space debris orbiting earth. Although, the thought of something falling to earth is pretty scary, we are actually fairly well protected. What comes up must come down, but statistically it’s very rare for someone to be struck by falling debris from space. So, where does some of this debris come from when it falls to Earth? There is an incredibly large band that stretches many miles above the Earths atmosphere.  Satellites in this band are fixed in their position and used for world wide communications. Information can be relayed to them and beamed around the world. But what effect does solar weather have on satellites? And don’t miss what’s in the night sky this week. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20110926.mp3]