Why ‘Kessler Syndrome’ could turn from a hypothetical to a space disaster reality

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Exploring space has opened our eyes to numerous wonders, but these cosmic feats haven’t come without challenges.

Each SpaceX Starship launch from South Texas creates a stunning spectacle, previewing maneuvers that could one day be used to carry humans to Mars.

But the most powerful rocket ever built also unleashes an earsplitting sonic boom when its Super Heavy rocket booster returns for a landing.

Now, with more launches on the horizon, new research suggests the noise could spell trouble, including environmental risks and potential hearing damage.

Meanwhile, a massive fragment of a space object crashed to Earth in a remote village of Kenya.

The space debris is just one of several pieces that have plummeted back to the planet. However, experts are more worried about the growing number of objects circling our world.

Defying gravity

Tens of thousands of identifiable pieces of space junk orbit Earth, along with potentially millions more that can’t be seen or tracked. These stray objects pose a risk to astronauts, satellites, and other space-based technologies that we rely on for internet and other services.

“The number of objects in space that we have launched in the last four years has increased exponentially,” said Dr. Vishnu Reddy, a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “So we are heading towards the situation that we are always dreading.”

The scenario, in which space debris collides and creates more debris, is called Kessler Syndrome. Eventually, the proliferation could make Earth’s orbit too clogged for satellites to orbit — or for space missions to launch.

While we may not be in dire straits yet, space traffic needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, experts say.

Ocean secrets

Scientists studying comb jellies, one of the oldest animals on Earth, discovered that individuals have the ability to fuse their bodies, as well as the nervous and digestive systems, to become one organism.

Injured comb jellies could fuse and move as a unit, the biologists found.

Time-lapse imaging of the fusion process showed just how quickly the jellies were able to synchronize their muscle movements and effectively become one.

This pairing, resulting in a single animal with multiple sensory organs, may be a survival mechanism, the researchers believe.

Force of nature

Researchers have finally pinpointed the location of a “mystery volcano” that erupted so violently it cooled Earth’s climate in 1831.

The eruption, the most powerful of the 19th century, lofted so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that the annual average temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere dropped by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

An in-depth study of ice cores taken from Greenland enabled researchers to look back across time and isolate volcanic glass shards deposited nearly 200 years ago.

Analyzing and mapping the likely trajectory of the particles helped scientists zero in on the Zavaritskii volcano on the remote and uninhabited Simushir Island, part of the Kuril Islands archipelago disputed by Russia and Japan.

Consequences

A devastating heat wave caused the worst single-species mortality event documented in modern history, and the birds affected by the disaster aren’t bouncing back, according to a recent study.

The marine heat wave, known as “the Blob,” stretched across the ocean from California to the Gulf of Alaska between 2014 and 2016. The spike in temperatures killed about 4 million common murres in Alaska, which represents half of the state’s population of those seabirds. The birds play a critical role as predators in the marine food web.

“There are about 8 million people in New York City, so it would be like losing half of the population … in a single winter,” said Brie Drummond, a wildlife biologist at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Fantastic creatures

A tiny seahorse relative, an adventurous moth and a vegetarian piranha named after a “Lord of the Rings” villain are just a few of the hundreds of previously unknown species announced by scientists in 2024.

Scientific divers had one chance to explore South African reefs, where they spotted a pygmy pipehorse. The golf tee-size species was found camouflaged near some sponges, expanding the creature’s known range from the waters of New Zealand’s North Island to the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, a moth found its way into the boot of a photographer, who accidently transported the insect from South America to her home in Wales. Her daughter, ecologist Daisy Cadet, spied the unusual moth as it fluttered around the house and reached out to London’s Natural History Museum.

Take note

Catch up on what you might have missed:

— Mark your calendars! Here are the key dates for “blood” moons, eclipses and meteor showers that will light up the night sky throughout the year.

— Microplastics have been found from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest ocean trenches. Now, scientists in China may have engineered a solution to rid ecosystems of this threat: biodegradable sponges made from squid bones and cotton.

— A homeowner in New York’s Orange County unearthed a complete mastodon jaw while doing yardwork.

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