Starlink satellites in orbit around our planet are changing the communications landscape, replacing giant radio antennas with eventually thousands of internet providers. However, experts now say they could pose a greater risk to humans than just blocking astronomers’ views of the cosmos.
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00:00Starlink satellites in orbit around our planet are changing the communications landscape,
00:08replacing giant radio antennas with eventually thousands of internet providers.
00:13However, experts now say they could pose a greater risk to humans than just blocking
00:16astronomers' views of the cosmos.
00:19Starlink says they want to put tens of thousands of these satellites into orbit over the next
00:22ten years.
00:23However, eventually they will become defunct and will re-enter our atmosphere and burn
00:27up.
00:28Scientists say when that happens, they will leave tiny particles of metal in our atmosphere.
00:32Now a new study has quantified just how much metal will be dumped into our air.
00:36Around 396 tons every year.
00:39The particles will initially be broken up just above the stratosphere, however the researchers
00:43say it will drift down into it.
00:44In that part of the atmosphere, a chemical reaction will occur and could create an ozone
00:49layer destroying situation.
00:50However, Starlink isn't the only culprit.
00:53A recent study has found that spacecraft re-entry has already injected an incredible amount
00:57of metal into our atmosphere, finding that 10% of all stratospheric aerosols already
01:02contain aluminum, with experts predicting that number will jump to 50% over the next
01:07several decades.