2009 Cosmos+Iridium Collision (Simulation)

[heng]

old post (2013), search function failed me, so here it is again(?).

(no sound(*))

Woah....

That is a lot of debris out there... from just one collision.

found it today via http://listverse.com/2015/05/13/10-spectacular-satellite-collisions/ (not all are "spectacular")

--

(*): it's realistic, because it's in spaaaaace... or my speaker broke

Edited May 13, 2015 by heng
source

[Beale]

Holy moly!

How the satellites just seem to "phase" through each other in the collision simulation, really puts into perspective orbital velocities!

Thanks for the vid!

[Camacha]

How the satellites just seem to "phase" through each other in the collision simulation, really puts into perspective orbital velocities!

Thing is, you don't even need speeds that high to get those kinds of effect. In our mind, cars and aircraft are all pretty nice and solid objects. Even with a high speed car crash against you see that does not work out any more, with the sheet metal very obviously just being that and tearing, folding and disintegrating into nothingness.

The car industry does a great job of building cars that feel like strong little fortresses Too bad the lie works best when people buy the car, not when we most need it.

[SuperFastJellyfish]

It reminds me of this:

https://youtu.be/Nl8xTqTUGCY?t=3m18s

This rocket sled was 'only' moving at ~650 mph. The Cosmos and Iridium collision was at ~22,000 mph relative velocity.