Re: burn up

Sam Wormley wrote:
bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
why do satellites burn up in earth's atmosphere as they fall down?

is it just the high velocity? i don't see how that would
cause combustion.


Friction


And they don't just fall they are circling the earth at a very high speed (Sam would probably know exactly how fast :) ). They strike the atmosphere at that speed so there is lots and lots of friction.

Why do you think the Space Shuttle has all of those fancy tiles on it's bottom? They are not there to make it look nice. :)

--
Bruce E. Stemplewski
GarXface OCX and C++ Class Library for the Garmin GPS
www.stempsoft.com
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