![]() The same thing happens as an object moves quickly through the atmosphere: The compressed air in front of it heats up, and the object itself gets hot. You might have noticed while pumping up a bike tire that the tire gets hot as you pump more air in it’s because it’s compressing the air already in the tube. Pressing more air into the same space causes a compression. This is a problem-because there is already air there. Some of this air gets pushed to the side, but much of it is pushed forward. Orbital objects are going really fast, and when they start to move through the atmosphere, they push the air in front of them, because that air gets in their way. As an example, pieces of Skylab made it through the atmosphere upon reentry in 1979 and hit the Earth as debris.īut anything that falls through the atmosphere gets super hot. Although reentry can be a violent event and completely destroy many objects, it’s quite possible that something the size of the ISS would at least partially survive. ![]()
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