Aluminium emissions from satellites as they fall to Earth and burn up is becoming more significant as their numbers soar
Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/may/01/dying-satellites-can-drive-climate-change-and-ozone-depletion-study-finds
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Good thing starlink and Amazon have been littering the skies with internet satellites! 😒
Isn’t aluminum oxide really bad for people to inhale?
Why do you say that? I just did some Googling and it appears to be basically as inert as you can get, it’s just dust. The main concerns I saw were industrial environments where there might be a risk of the sheer amount of it causing problems via irritation of mucous membranes and whatnot. A windy day sweeping dust up off the ground would put far more into your lungs than satellite burn-ups would.
I had a friend who used to make ball bearings in a shop once. I thought a mutual friend mentioned it when he died.
Could have been a coal lung sort of situation. I doubt that will be an issue with satellites breaking up 300 miles above ground
Maybe. And maybe. We will have to see, since inner space is more polluted.
Potentially zinc oxide, then, which is horrible for you.
Maybe. He’s been dead since the early aughts, memories fade.
I support the posting of archived links, but it doesn’t work if you haven’t actually archived the page in question yet :P
Regarding the article itself, I’m not the best at parsing science-speak, but it doesn’t look like they found any major repercussions? Somebody correct me if I misunderstood.
