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0 pointsSoftTalker5mo ago0 comments

The satellites are mostly metal and silicon I would guess, not too different from asteroids.

0 comments

I guess we can just read the article:

> The researchers found particles containing the rare elements niobium and hafnium. They also found a significant number of particles contained copper, lithium and aluminum at concentrations far exceeding the abundance found in space dust.

bwestergard5mo ago

If someone has the time, I'd love to see the total amount of lead added to the atmosphere by burning up satellites compared to the amount from other anthropogenic sources.

adastra225mo ago

Rough napkin math would be negligible impact. The amount of lead in a satellite is very small, if not actually zero. The amount of lead added by burning coal is about 30 tonnes per day.

everforward5mo ago

There is almost definitely a small, negligible amount of lead in the solder in them. Eg NASA requires a small (single digit I think) percentage of lead to prevent tin whiskering.

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