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When Satellites Fall (Intentionally Or Otherwise)

Kinetic energy?
Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because of its motion.

It looks more like a wind turbine than a satellite but I’m wondering what could cause an explosion in a wind turbine. I could see one burning in a fire but exploding?..
 
Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because of its motion.

It looks more like a wind turbine than a satellite but I’m wondering what could cause an explosion in a wind turbine. I could see one burning in a fire but exploding?..
A sudden, catastrophic dismantling may look like an explosion.
Who actually described it as an explosion?
 
A sudden, catastrophic dismantling may look like an explosion.
Who actually described it as an explosion?

This is how it’s reported. It is from the Mirror though.

A huge satellite has plummeted from space and crashed in China, causing a huge fireball to erupt after it crash-landed in the north of the country.
There's certainly a big plume of smoke in the video.
 
This is how it’s reported. It is from the Mirror though.


There's certainly a big plume of smoke in the video.
Some confusing eyewitness accounts and unreliable journalism - this leads me to conclude that a certain amount of hyperbole is involved.
 
I don’t imagine a satellite would explode either - it’s unlikely much would survive re-entry if had gone into orbit, and they don’t carry fuel or a means of propulsion. Could be a turbine, or perhaps an aerial vehicle such as a drone?
 
Wind turbines do catch fire and can collapse. It's likely something has been lost in translation (being charitable to the journalists).

https://www.kecofm.com/featured/custer-co-wind-turbine-catches-fire-collapses/

1.jpg
 
You yourself posted a video of a wind turbine collapsing here

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...tally-friendly-as-promised.62597/post-2281980

It doesn’t go up in smoke. I’m wondering why this one did - if it was a wind turbine.
They all collapse/fall apart in different ways, according to conditions and the way they are constructed.
No events like this look exactly the same.
The fire may be due to some transformers and other mechanisms failing in the turbine room.
 
Using tractor beams to deal with space junk.

In science fiction films, nothing raises tension quite like the good guys' spaceship getting caught in an invisible tractor beam that allows the baddies to slowly reel them in. But what was once only a sci-fi staple could soon become a reality.

Scientists are developing a real-life tractor beam, dubbed an electrostatic tractor. This tractor beam wouldn't suck in helpless starship pilots, however. Instead, it would use electrostatic attraction to nudge hazardous space junk safely out of Earth orbit.

The stakes are high: With the commercial space industry booming, the number of satellites in Earth's orbit is forecast to rise sharply. This bonanza of new satellites will eventually wear out and turn the space around Earth into a giant junkyard of debris that could smash into working spacecraft, plummet to Earth, pollute our atmosphere with metals and obscure our view of the cosmos. And, if left unchecked, the growing space junk problem could hobble the booming space exploration industry, experts warn.

The science is pretty much there, but the funding is not.
The electrostatic tractor beam could potentially alleviate that problem by safely moving dead satellites far out of Earth orbit, where they would drift harmlessly for eternity.

While the tractor beam wouldn't completely solve the space junk problem, the concept has several advantages over other proposed space debris removal methods, which could make it a valuable tool for tackling the issue, experts told Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/space/s...d-could-solve-the-major-problem-of-space-junk
 
Would it work on glass, plastic, aluminium and titanium?
 
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