A US Iridium satellite has hit a defunct Russian satellite in an unprecedented space collision. The crash occurred some 790km (491 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, according to NASA, and produced a "massive" cloud of debris. About 600 pieces are being tracked from the debris field in hopes of understanding the risk they present to other satellites and the international space station. The Russian craft was identified as the 950kg (2,094 pound) Cosmos 2251, a communications relay station launched in 1993 and believed to have been non-operational for the last 10 years or so. The Iridium telecommunications satellite was estimated to weigh about 560kg (1,234 pounds).
Unsurprisingly, its loss is expected to have "minimal impact on Iridium's service," according to a statement made by the company. When asked who was at fault, NASA responded dryly:
posted February 12th 2009 1:33AM
I find it funny that it hit a RUSSIAN satellite of all things. Something isnt right...
Zombie Alert!
I guess it is a bit naive to think that there is infinite amount of space in the Earth's orbit. However, I am surprised that it took over 6,000 satellites to make this happen. This link looks at a few different reports on the incident.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/russia_and_u_s_collide_in_space/
weight = mass x gravitational acceleration
On the surface of Earth, gravitational acceleration = 9.8 m/s^2
Gravitational acceleration vary with the altitude.
So, an object who's mass is 10 kg, on the surface will have a weight of 10kg*9.8m/s^2 = 98 Newtons (weight is a force and force is measured in newtons)
At 10.000 feet because gravitational acceleration decreases, its weight will decrease, and mass remains the same.
So weight and mass is NOT interchangeable :)