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Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
Nov 3, 2026, 9:37 PM
Somewhere in our skies will be a flash of light as the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory burns up on reentry.
And on that, an important note from local astronomer, Ian Griffin:
"We, in recent years, put enormous numbers of satellites up into the low earth orbit and they're now re-entering at a rate of about two a day. [...]
We're sort of changing the chemistry of our atmosphere in a great experiment at the moment, we really don't know where it's going to end up."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/2329005/sad-day-for-astronomers-as-nasa-telescope-set-to-crash-back-to-earth
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Replies

Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
Nov 3, 2026, 9:51 PM
All these metals that we're spraying into the atmosphere on reentry burn are even worse than PFAS in the hydrosphere, in that unlike PFAS (which after 1000's of years do eventually decay) they are pretty much permanent, never cycled out of the atmosphere.
Space junk burn may prove to become our most indelible mark on this planet.
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Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
Nov 4, 2026, 10:08 PM
And an incredible photo to show just how much is up there, waiting to come down:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/04/viral-image-nz-night-sky-satellites-accused-of-being-ai-brendan-larsen
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TrueNorthSpice 🇨🇦TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world
Nov 3, 2026, 9:50 PM
@JulianOliver
I can't imagine the change in the atmosphere will be for the better.
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SupermoosieSuperMoosie@mastodon.au
Nov 4, 2026, 1:19 AM
@JulianOliver
Just another Star link satellite.
Don't worry, it won't hurt us.
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themadhatterthemadhatter@mastodon.social
Nov 4, 2026, 10:36 PM
@JulianOliver wow 👀
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ben dafydd gillardbenchaotica@mastodon.nz
Nov 5, 2026, 9:04 AM
@JulianOliver
"If we dig precious things from the land, we invite disaster.
Near the day of purifications, there will be cobwebs spun back & forth in the sky.
A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."
Supposedly a Hopi prophecy as quoted at the end of koyaanisqatsi.
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Petra van CronenburgNatureMC@mastodon.online
Nov 5, 2026, 10:15 AM
@JulianOliver If you are interested in #spacedebris I warmly recommend to follow specialist @sundogplanets !
#astronomy #space #followFriday
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DavidM_yegDavidM_yeg@beige.party
Nov 4, 2026, 4:27 PM
@JulianOliver
This is one of the things that worries me the most - the grand scale chemical experiment. Not that the destruction of the night sky and earth based astronomy isn’t bad enough, but the consequences of the chemical experiment won’t become evident until several decades after it’s too late to do anything about it and then will last possibly for centuries.
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Julian OliverJulianOliver@mastodon.social
Nov 4, 2026, 5:20 PM
@DavidM_yeg Yes, millennia even. As I understand it, there is no way back from a changed upper atmosphere, naturally or artificially.
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