Space junk doesn't fly in atmosphere until shot down.

Space junk would burn up immediately, not cruise along at a lackadaisical pace at a uniform altitude.

OK yeah space junk is definitely what it is like fuck gravity right

These are balloons, pure and simple. Space junk plummets to earth once it has reentered. It doesn't float around at 40k feet for days on end.

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Things in low orbit have to travel about 17000 mph / 28000 km/h to stay in orbit. Once they get low enough to enter the atmosphere, all that kinetic energy gets turned into heat and melts basically everything. Some stuff can survive and make it to the ground, but it would fall pretty quickly.

Yeah the space junk charges up on their anti-gravity particles and re-enter the atmosphere (without burning up) to float at 20-40 mph until shot down.

Solved!

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So it can't be shot down?

Space junk is hypersonic (LEO orbital velocity is ~7.5km/s ie ~mach 22) and thus burns up when it hits the atmosphere - and if it's large enough to not all burn up before it sheds most of its speed, it'll plummet to the ground rather than floating around in the air until taken down.

If you're thinking hydrogen fuel tanks, their walls are much thicker than weather balloons and would drop like a stone if one somehow survived reentry (eg protected by some larger structure that burned up).

Not in atmosphere; it is already plummeting toward the ground.

In orbit? Sure. Happens all the time.

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Jesus christ, just prepare your anuses already. Its obviously aliens.

Empty rocket canister floating at 40,000 feet? I don’t think so. We have this thing called gravity

Look at the reported altitude of those objects and then look at the altitude of low earth orbit. Trying not to be rude about it but come on man just one simple google search before making a full post about something should be standard practice.

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No, orbital crap would burn up on reentry to smash into the ground.

I'm actually a little concerned at the number of shoot downs and the fact the authorities can't even say what some of the stuff they are shooting down is.

For the ones they can identify as Chinese balloons or whatever, that is one thing.

But for the other stuff I'd generally freaking hope you know what you are firing at before you launch a missile at something.

Historically, the shoot first and ask questions later approach often has eventually lead to some tragic results.

One sounded like an escaped "Happy Birthday" balloon. Wait until all those Valentines Day balloons escape. That will massively terrorize the US military.

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