Do you know about what fell from the sky?

Do you know about what fell from the sky?

After fragments of debris “fell from space” in three locations in Gujarat on May 12, villagers remain confused and curious.

The locations were Bhalej, Khambholaj, and Rampura. Our team from the Forensic Science Laboratory inspects the debris to see what has been found so far, how it differs from meteoroids, and if similar incidents have occurred in the past in India.
The locations were Bhalej, Khambholaj, and Rampura.

Our team from the Forensic Science Laboratory inspects the debris to see what has been found so far, how it differs from meteoroids, and if similar incidents have occurred in the past in India.

Three pieces of suspected space debris “fell from space” in Gujarat on May 12. Villagers were confused and curious. A five-kilogram black metal ball fell “from the sky” in the Bhalej village in Anand, followed by two similar fragments in Khambholaj and Rampura villages.

There are three villages within a 15-kilometer radius, and one piece of debris fell on Chimanbhai’s field. According to the authorities, no injuries were reported.
An 8 km radius from Bhalej is Chaklasi village in Anand, where similar debris was found on May 14.

Indian authorities have not released any information on what it might be, but astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics tweeted that it could be debris from China’s Chang Zheng 3B serial Y86, an orbital launch vehicle.

As he monitors the US Space Force data, McDowell says his deduction is based on the fact that this object is the only one that got close to India that day (May 12).
Aerospace.org predicted the same, stating that the launch vehicle will re-enter Earth’s space around 10.37 a.m. (IST) on May 12.

McDowell notes, however, that “the predicted path was a few hundred kilometers north of the villages in question, but that’s within the uncertainties for this object because its orbit has been more uncertain than usual.”.

A problem was that the orbit changed rapidly due to atmospheric drag. Thus, the last Space Force Orbit we had was several hours old. On the basis of its path through space, the projection forward of that orbit is accurate.

Although the position of the rocket along its track is uncertain, and if it’s five minutes late, the Earth has turned under the orbit by five minutes, which is equal to 0.25 degrees in that short amount of time. As a result, the predicted ground location changes accordingly,” McDowell explained.

As reported by Gujarat’s Anand district collector, M Y Daxini, a team from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory is examining the samples and the district collectorate is in touch with the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Space Application Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad to determine whether the debris is from a satellite or rocket.

Natural space debris can include meteoroids, as well as man-made debris, such as defunct satellites, rocket stages, dead satellites, satellite explosions, and collisions with satellites.

According to NASA, “more than 25,000 space debris objects larger than 10 cm exist” and the estimated population of space debris particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. NASA estimates that the amount of material orbiting Earth has exceeded 9,000 metric tons as of January 2022.

Known as CZ 3B, the Chang Zheng 3B orbital launch vehicle is similar to India’s GSLV and PSLV. China National Space Administration’s ‘Long March’ rocket family carries satellites or payloads for the country’s national space agency. Within this family of rockets, the 3B refers to the Long March 3B.

In addition to 84 flights, the model carried communications satellites on its last flight in April 2022. Y86 is the designated serial number for the 78th flight mission. Launched on September 9, 2021, this mission carried the 5,500 kg ChinaSat 9B communication satellite to the geostationary transit orbit.

Since these stages are released at lower altitudes, usually the first and second stages of rockets return to earth within a week or so after take-off.

Re-entry in such cases can then be conducted in such a way as to avoid damaging populated landmasses. As for the third stage, which releases the satellite in its required orbit after which it remains in the sub-orbital flight, it is outside the purview of human control and ultimately re-enters the atmosphere.

According to reports, it is the third stage of the Long March 3B Y 86 rocket launch that is suspected to have re-entered the earth, resulting in debris landing in Gujarat. As space debris enters Earth’s atmosphere, most pieces burn up, starting around a height of 100 km from the surface to 20 km.

Sometimes, however, very heavy pieces may not burn completely, and some pieces may find their way to the surface, either hitting land or water.

With constellation satellites gaining popularity, such as SpaceX’s Starlink project, OneWeb Constellation by London-based OneWeb, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the common critique has been the increase in space debris and the risk of collision.
In cases of man-made debris, it generally disintegrates into fragments, thus rarely creating a large-scale impact.

It is usually natural debris, such as asteroids and meteoroids, that causes relatively large craters if it hits a landmass.

For many astronomers, tracking space debris has become an important aspect of their research. In NASA’s opinion, for example, “large orbital debris (> 10 cm) is tracked routinely by the US Space Surveillance Network,” as even small objects as small as 3 mm can be detected by ground-based radars, “allowing us to estimate their number statistically”.

During the lower parts of Earth’s orbit (below 2,000 km), debris circles the Earth at about 7-8 km per second.

However, the average impact speed of orbital debris with another space object is approximately 10 km/s and can go up to about 15 km/s, which is roughly ten times the speed of a bullet. As a result, colliding with even a small piece of debris will generate considerable energy.

Examining impact features on the surfaces of returned spacecraft can provide insight into the population of orbital debris smaller than 1 mm, although this has been limited to spacecraft operating below 600 km.

The deliberate destruction of the Chinese weather satellite Fengyun-1C in 2007, as well as the accidental collision between Iridium-33 and Cosmos-2251 in 2009 greatly increased the number of large pieces of debris in orbit – representing one-third of all orbital debris cataloged by NASA.

 

In April, six metallic balls and a metal ring fell from the sky in parts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which were also attributed to China’s Long March 3 B rocket. Its specific nature was determined by a team from ISRO.

One event from February 1996 stands out in terms of damage caused by space debris. As the result of a failure of the Long March 3 B rocket, debris from the satellite’s payload, US-made Intelsat 708, fell from the sky minutes after liftoff, killing six and injuring 57 other people in China, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

There was the first reported incident of space debris damage in 1978 following the crash of the Soviet Union’s nuclear-powered Cosmos 954 satellite. The satellite fell over Canada four months after takeoff, requiring extensive cleanup of radioactive material.

As part of the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, countries can claim compensation from other countries for damages caused by space debris.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma