Opwarming aarde beinvloedt ruimte-afval

"Human-caused increases in carbon dioxide emissions are thinning Earth’s outer atmosphere, making it easier to keep the international space station aloft but prolonging the life of dangerous space debris, scientists said Monday.

“It’s a bit of a two-edged sword,” said Stanley Solomon, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “In the future, it will be a little bit easier to keep the space station, for instance, in orbit. It will need a little bit less fuel.”

“On the other hand, it will give space junk a much longer lifetime,” he told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco."

Bron: www.msnbc.com