Friday, September 24, 2010

Space Junk ... Alien Beings Not Welcome...!


When we see the iconic photograph of our beautiful planet earth, this is not the view we imagine, is it?  These pictures are images of space junk that is currently being tracked orbiting earth.


According to Nasa, approximately 95% of the objects in these pictures illustrate orbital debris, not functional satellites.


The dots represent the current location of each item.  Can you count them?


These images provide a good visualization of where the greatest orbital debris areas exist.


Even if alien beings from other planets wished to visit us, would they really want to risk flying through the space junk?  They would take one look at our planet and head for home.

20 comments:

Jelica said...

I suppose that's good news--we can have our planet all to ourselves :)

Jo said...

Jelica, *chuckle* yes.

myletterstoemily said...

ha ha! that space junk should warn
any being away from our messy
planet!

Jo said...

Lea, yes *heh* our very own shield.

Sam Liu said...

Good lord, those photographs are amazing. It's wonderful and crazy to think that all that junk is suspended above us. Amazing.

Jo said...

Sam, I know! And just think what the sun's rays must do to it.

TomCat said...

Only if we're lucky. Truly adbanced alians might vacuum up the space junk, scope out the Gulf of Mexico and the rapidly growing Northwest Passage, figure the planet is too good for us, and SPLAT!

Katy said...

Wasn't the ISS recently hit by falling space junk? Like everything we humans have invented some really cool things, but checked our foresight at the door. Like all those plastic one use containers. We invent these things without any thought to long term damage they might cause.

DJan said...

Amen, Jo. It's absolutely amazing to see what's out there. The Big Sky Theory doesn't work very well in outer space (that being there's so much sky we can dump all our garbage into it without consequence).

Paula Slade said...

Scary images Jo. If I were an alien, I'd consider going into the salvage business! LOL! :)

Pauline said...

jeesh! we've not only junked the planet, we've junked the space AROUND the planet! what is wrong with us human beings?

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I think it's shocking and appalling. Do we really think this whirling garbage dump is not going to destroy us? Who knows how much damage we are doing to other galaxies, of which we're not even aware? It's simply shameful that earthly greed and stupidity have reached these proportions.

Single and Sane said...

I'm thinking the same thing Katy is...doesn't space debris eventually fall to earth? Some of that stuff is bound to hit something. <>

the walking man said...

That ain't orbiting junk that is our alien defense perimeter.

Carl said...

wow.

Marguerite said...

Thank goodness for space junk! lol Guess it's poetic justice! Have a great weekend, Jo!

Charles Gramlich said...

Looks like someone needs to "vacuum'

twebsterarmstrong said...

Those are great photos!

Anonymous said...

Great photos. But I must admit, I am a little shocked. This can't be good!

Alicia said...

Oh my gosh! And I get so upset just seeing the trash and junk people throw by the side of the road or in parking lots! Ack! Now I have to worry about Space Junk? Oh no, Jo, say it isn't so!