mooseGoose89 t1_j5pb1hk wrote on January 24, 2023 at 5:02 PM

Reply to comment by ChronoLegion2 in Starlink Is ‘Forced’ To Finally Start Caring About The System’s Light Pollution And Harm To Scientific Research by Albion_Tourgee

This is incorrect.

The speed required for an object to go into space and orbit the Earth (orbital velocity) is about 28,000 km/hr (17,500 mph) at low earth orbit.

It's not impossible to have two objects in LEO traveling in opposite directions. Not sure what you think, but 56,000km/hr is fast enough to do unstoppable damage if they were to collide.

ChronoLegion2 t1_j5pjl1k wrote on January 24, 2023 at 5:54 PM

Huh. Didn’t think about them moving in opposite directions

mooseGoose89 t1_j5pln41 wrote on January 24, 2023 at 6:06 PM

Opposite directions might be a bit of a stretch in reality. But, at those velocities, any angular collision would also be pretty catastrophic.