07-08-2015, 05:45 PM
I was so tempted not to reply because I love oink's response. Not a trekkie but I thought of "the place where astronomers go to die".
Rocket bodies are literally the bodies of rockets. Rockets that launch stuff into space generally consist of two or more stages. There's an initial stage that blasts the rocket into the upper reaches of the atmosphere where it is discarded and generally returns to Earth but burns up in the atmosphere. The second or third stages take the payload into orbit but are then discarded. These rocket remains, generally rather large parts of the original rocket, can stay in orbit for many years or even decades. They are uncontrolled (no fuel left) and can be hazardous to spacecraft. However, they are easy to track because they are big.
Ericlp, that ring or band full of satellites (i.e. red dots) is geosynchronous orbit. It's an orbit above the equator where a satellite orbits the Earth at the same rate the Earth rotates, so satellites there remain above the same point on Earth. It's where most of the communication, TV and weather satellites are placed, so it's a little crowded, well, relatively speaking.
Rocket bodies are literally the bodies of rockets. Rockets that launch stuff into space generally consist of two or more stages. There's an initial stage that blasts the rocket into the upper reaches of the atmosphere where it is discarded and generally returns to Earth but burns up in the atmosphere. The second or third stages take the payload into orbit but are then discarded. These rocket remains, generally rather large parts of the original rocket, can stay in orbit for many years or even decades. They are uncontrolled (no fuel left) and can be hazardous to spacecraft. However, they are easy to track because they are big.
Ericlp, that ring or band full of satellites (i.e. red dots) is geosynchronous orbit. It's an orbit above the equator where a satellite orbits the Earth at the same rate the Earth rotates, so satellites there remain above the same point on Earth. It's where most of the communication, TV and weather satellites are placed, so it's a little crowded, well, relatively speaking.