![]() ![]() Using average density from wikipedia and the basic drag coefficient values lets get some rough ballistic coefficients for various hypothetical bits of debris of about 1cm in size. You've asked about a 1cm piece of debris, the easy way to show how this is affected is probably to show a little table for comparison. So lets get to how this affects your question. Atmospheric drag on an object, regardless of velocity, and even for the tenuous wisps of molecular gasses above 400km altitude, is determined by the ballistic co-efficient ( ) which can be understood as (( how dense is the object * how long is the object ) / an special adjustment factor for the shape of the object ). This is pretty abstract stuff talking about dimensionless values and such, but it gets a lot more obvious what's going on when you focus just what aerodynamic drag is caused by. ![]() ![]() Because orbital decay is related to the loss of an orbiting objects potential energy and its potential energy depends on its mass and how fast the energy is lost will be related to its shape.įor a more step by step explanation you can read through the math of the Wikipedia explanation here ( ), its actually pretty good explanation which avoids getting too deep into the weeds. You've given us a size, but not a density or shape. Your question leaves out two rather important variables to give accurate answers. Since the peak concentration of space debris is at an altitude of 1000km, it will take many decades for spontaneous reduction of centimeter size debris and centuries or millennia for larger chunks The time to de-orbit depends on a large number of variables: Above 620 miles (1,000 km), orbital debris normally will continue circling Earth for a century or more.”.At altitudes of 500 miles (800 km), the time for orbital decay is often measured in decades.Debris left in orbits below 370 miles (600 km) normally fall back to Earth within several years.“The higher the altitude, the longer the orbital debris will typically ![]()
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