Vote for this video by social sharing!
Edit: no giant flashes were observed so it looks like a narrow miss was the result.Based on information from satellite tracker LeoLabs there’s a significant chance that two old satellites might collide at a speed of 14.7km/sec over the US tonight (January 29th, 2020). The odds are still small, but the consequences are big so amateur astronomers are setting up to monitor this event.
LeoLabs visualization:
https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/conjunction?cdmId=3036886825&type=conjunction&reportId=2001817770
The thumbnail uses an image from FlightClub:
https://www.patreon.com/flightclub
Thanks Scott Manley for the video hopefully more of the public will awaken to space debris now
Aaahhh! It looks like V’ger!
More space debris – yay! 🎈
Thank for the heads-up.
I went out to look and it was cloudy, as always. Other astronomers in the area were able to view, but nothing happened.
Third satellite will interpret the collision as an ICBM launch. Game Over!
Who would win
A piece of history *some classified boi*
very exciting, im a pittsburgh native!
*the Scott Manley side of me:* IRAS is such a historic icon, it would be a shame for it to blow up.
*the space pirate side of me:* After all it’s years of servis – *its time to go out with a bang!!*
Part of me wants starlink junk to collide. 😈
Congratulations on 1 million subs
Man that classic satellite looks awesome!
getting the popcorn some one better do a live stream. So can we get a half section yet?
Never been so early…
man, I just want to know what your shirt says
And could be the beginning of a Kessler Effect
The beginning of the end.
Nice just finished you last video about 3 seconds before the notification came up…
have your eyebrows always been so dark??🤔
Keppler Syndrome: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
GGSE-4 reminds me of bar shot or chain shot from fighting ships in the days of sail.
Does your shirt stand for some type of travel velocity
If it happens, I’m just gonna unironically quote the line from Gravity. And then crawl in a hole.
I need to know what your t-shirt means! NEED!
Anyone know the meaning of Scott’s shirt in this one? It looks neat
Just in time for the two ‘New’ ones (plus spares) from the NRO
it’s good to hear that i’m one launch closer to getting starlink.
Okee…time’s up…did they hit each other? ~( ‘w’)/
Thanks for the heads up Scott, I live in north NJ and will be looking
It’s impressive to see such a bright group of satelites like starilks, and it was so easy to look for them… Thanks for the advice
Hey Scott, congrats on surpassing 1 million subscribers!
Oh no, more space junk
I take it they missed each other.
Where’s the 1M subs video?! Congratulations!!!! 🤩🥳
So if they didn’t collide, then should we try to do something about them so they don’t collide in the future?
Now this is Breaking(apart) news!
Could this be the collision which rapidly escalates the chain reaction of fragmentation that makes safe orbital flight impossible?
I’ve got $50 on GGSE-4
Dave Matthews Band is loving this!
I live near Pittsburgh!!! But saw this video literally 2 hours late ):
1M subs celebration party. When & where? Cg Mr. Manley, I learned so much from you. Thanks for spreading knowledge.
Aerospace industry: Doh!
I love in philly so it’s like a e hours drive to Pittsburgh from here
Some quick and dirty calculations tell me that IRAS will naturally decay in “just” 20 thousand years…
We really need more strikt rules for everything above 600 km and we need to cleanup whats there
Yay! Thanks for the thanks to IRAS, its breakthrough view of The Big Thing, and being the Australopithicus to the James Webb!
Thanks for doing this video! I hope they don’t collide, though… We don’t need any more debris up there.
I used IRAS data during my PhD :))
Just added the estimated time of the event to the Wikipedia article on IRAS.
Scott, you are the best! Like TLC in the early 1990’s. Informative without any bullshit whatsoever- I look to you when I want REAL details of scientific space goings on. Thank you! AND YES, I know, I know… but…I kinda want them to collide as well….BOOM!!!
3:08 in KSP when you try to rendezvous with a satellite but you are accidentally going the wrong way.
*West of Pittsburgh there’s a place called moon*
Damn. They must’ve MISSED ea. other 😪💦
Says the guy < 50 miles from Pgh, PA
Non event. They missed.
I remember when IRAS data was first shown. It was so awesome.
Sooo… did it happen?
1:23 Poppy!
Still got the screenshot:)
I launched that in Kerbal Space program few years ago
https://imgur.com/a/v7rtYl2
This is some interesting fantasy 😂
The debris though
Oh… poor IRAS :’^(
Over a million subs ! Congratulations, well deserved 👏👏👏
Just like Adam Schiff, missed the target.
I’m a huge fan Scott! Keep up the good work! Fly safe!
In the comments: everyone wishing they collide
In reality: everyone will be pissed off when their GPS, wifi, etc… satellite is hit from the debris.
PS: They didn’t. 😩😩😩
From a fellow countryman, I always look forward to your posts and please keep them coming. Perhaps you could update later if the impact takes place ??? THU
IRAS was a Dutch build telescope in Cooperation with UK and US, and the second Dutch build telescope after ANS
a collision would be a right pain in the iras
We need Skynet to catch the debris. 😂😂
Someone warn George Clooney!
Here is hoping it doesn’t start a runaway mess of collisions
Welp, a satellite designed to stabilize itself by becoming tidally locked to the earth. I didn’t think that would work over such small scales and low masses.
14km per sec… that’s gonna be Nice.
fastest click in my life <3
Everything was clouded over my town when the starlink satellites flew by
what is the code on his t-shirt?
Sad day… I broke the mount on my telescope and I’m from Pittsburgh :(…
They missed each other!
I’m in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned, I may be selling souvenirs tomorrow.
“Fly Safe” and I’m talking to you IRAS!
I sort of want them to collide so that there’s a higher chance something is done about space debris in the future. You know, shake up those bureaucrats
Okay, I gotta know… What’s that on his shirt mean?
Is there a recommended livestream that may be able to show the collision? (If they have the equipment, of course.)
I’ve seen enough Star Trek TOS to know this is likely to create a genocidal machine intelligence.
1:19 Looks like one of those Imperial torture droids.
Well there’s another cloud of space debris we don’t need.
kessler syndrome here we go! lol
Gravity gradient stabilization actually does work. You will need a damping mechanism as it tends to oscillate like a pendulum, but that can be as simple as a couple of u-shaped tubes along the edges of the satellite filled with a slushy fluid that will dampen the oscillations (by converting movement into heat).
It can also help to mount a couple of permanent magnets to orient the satellite in the magnetic field of the earth, or a more advanced method would be to use coils as electromagnets and control them from the onboard computer to actively dampen and stabilize the satellite until the gravity gradient method can take over.
This method was used on a couple of amateur satellites from University of Surrey and it worked well.
I’m calling it now, in the future there will be a new branch of science:
Space Archeology
IRAS: Whuff! Did you see that?
GGSE: (whistling) Uh, nope. You know, we should get together for lunch sometime before one of us de-orbits.
IRAS: Sure. I’m not doing anything else….
Jeb is probably piloting one of them
Spoiler alert: Nothing happened…. this time.
I wonder how many people are looking for the result here :/
Ew.
At 900km circular orbits, a collision would leave a *lot* of debris up at altitudes where the natural decay rate is virtually zero.
Bad, *bad* mojo.
SpaceX should get into the business of de-orbiting old satellites.
For anyone scrolling through the comments for an update:
Leolabs will only be in position for a scan 2 hours after the event.
(Check their Twitter, when the time comes)
Edit: latest prediction was a 47 meter miss.
Update: They missed each other.
If they do collide I hope someone at least manages to capture it on camera. I suspect the flash should be quite visible, right?
They should just go to time warp when the sattelites approach each other and they will simply drift through each other. Also, even if they don’t time warp, the sattelites move so fast the the likelyhood that they collide in a frame is very low. Most likely, they will be in front of each other in one frame end behind each other in the next. (Real space does follow the mechanics I learn in Kerbal space program, right?)
Part of me wants them to collide
Part of me wants them not to collide..
SCOTT, the picture you used of the 4 guys in front of the poppy satellite, the one on the far right is my father! He designed the ELINT package!