This is how we can protect ourselves from air pollution

This new system will make it possible to predict the impact location of uncontrolled space objects

Here's how earthquakes can protect us from space debris

This new system makes it possible to predict the impact point of uncontrollable falling objects from space

Whether it's an extinct dinosaur on an island in Costa Rica, a bacteria that's highly resistant to antibiotics, or our civilization, which left Africa 60,000 years ago and has since made the planet too small for us, life likes to get its way.We're less than a century into the space age, but we've already launched so many rockets, satellites and probes into space that we're starting to see the consequences, and it's even more important that we protect ourselves.

Starlink stars began to interfere with astronomical observations, complicating the detection of dangerous asteroids.Space junk travels into our orbit at thousands of kilometers per hour, threatening the stability of satellites and the International Space Station itself, something that must be avoided.And, of course, every year the number of objects falling from space at full speed is increasing, and although many of them fall into the sea, the possibility that they will fall into the inhabited area is real.Now, two researchers from John Hopkins University have proposed a way to protect ourselves that, surprisingly, has to do with earthquakes.

A. Captain Rear

Así lo cuentan en el artículo que acaban de publicar en la revista científica Science. En su investigación, Benjamin Fernando y Constantinos Charalambous han utilizado la información que registran los sismómetros para predecir el lugar de impacto de estos objetos. Y dirás: “¿Lugar de impacto? ¿No podías haber elegido una expresión más natural?” He sido deliberadamente ambiguo con el tiempo porque este sistema puede predecir el lugar de la colisión… una vez han chocado. Puede parecer que, como adivinos, Charalambous y Fernando no tienen mucho futuro, pero todo esto tiene su truco. Adivinar qué tiempo hará un día sacando la cabeza por la ventana ese mismo día no tiene mérito, está claro. Pero imagina que al asomarte descubrieras que tus sentidos no responden, no puedes ver el sol ni sentir el viento… el reto ha aumentado.

And That's what the researchers face because, even if the thing they were watching has hit the ground, It's very difficult to find it. We don't always have accurate images where we can reconstruct the path of tinaizing, reconstructing the path of small hundreds of kilometers high can greatly affect the "living" area. So, yes, your system really helps us find these things, but how... they still threaten to fall on anyone's roof, and they don't prevent astronomers and they don't interfere with the International Space Station.It's true, but there is another danger that we don't often talk about.

Fire, radiation and poison

Sometimes we forget that what fell from the sky is the most complex space technology.In its mechanical bowels we can find all kinds of parts that are not always ready to collide with the earth at a speed of thousands of kilometers per hour.And, of course, they didn't plan for uninformed travelers to search their areas looking for things they want to take as souvenirs.A rare occurrence, I admit, but there are thousands of re-entry every day.As this number grows and more fragments survive contact with the earth, the risk of contact increases.

Either way, there's a fire hazard, and it's not dependent on the person climbing the space leak pile.So knowing where these things fall is critical information to recover the pieces before a problem occurs.And that's where seismometers come in.These instruments are designed to detect earthquakes caused by vibrations in the earth's crust, and are much more sensitive than we think.Apparently, you can detect atmospheric vibrations that occur when one of these objects descends at a speed greater than that of sound.Like the tip of a whip, the object produces a blast of sound when it exceeds 1235 kilometers per hour.

China orbital module

These waves spread to the earth's surface and cause it to vibrate in a way that we cannot perceive. Seismographs can, on the other hand, not only record the incident but by combining the forces, this makes it possible for many machines to detect where the sound waves burst, which means we can recreate their trajectories and trace how they are dispersed.In fact, that's exactly what they did with the Chinese orbital module "Shenzhou-15", crashing on April 2, 2024 near Las Vegas.

With records from 124 instruments from the Southern California Seismic Network and an additional station in Nevada, the researchers were able to reconstruct the block's path, speed, height and form of fragmentation.In this case, Shenzhou-15 disintegrated before hitting the ground, but with such detailed information, they could have identified the collision site of its fragments with reasonable accuracy.Therefore, this study offers a new strategy to protect ourselves from the dangers arising from this space age that we are about to embark on.It may not be a definitive solution and may not solve most problems, but it is based on public data and computationally inexpensive analysis.And if there are three characteristics that help predict the success of a new technology, it's probably these two: accessible, cheap and effective.

Don't know:

- Although they don't state it directly, this technique is specifically designed for objects that are large enough that a seismometer can clearly detect them. Given the number of objects re-entering the atmosphere each day, it makes sense to focus on the largest objects first, as smaller objects rarely survive the fall.

- Fernando, Benjamin, and Constantinos Charalambous."Return and Separation of Dynamic Spatial Debris Tracking Using Seismic Data."Science, vol.391, no.6783, 22 January 2026, pp. 412–416.Science, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4676.