Magazine
May-June 2024
May-June 2024
Volume: 112 Number: 3
A European Space Agency rocket launch in 2013 carried three satellites to orbit. Now, launches can carry dozens of small satellites at a time, quickly growing the population of devices in Earth’s orbit, which in turn increases the potential for collisions. In “Do You Know Where Your Satellite Is Tonight?," David Finkleman describes networks of ground-based observation stations, as well as data modeling techniques, that are used to try to keep track of everything in orbit around Earth and predict collisions. Finkleman also lays out why these networks and models are incomplete and their resulting collision estimates are thus largely inaccurate, and explains ways that data could be made more precise to protect valuable satellites in the future. (Cover image courtesy of ESA.)
In This Issue
- Astronomy
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Discovering the Urinary Microbiome
Alan J. Wolfe, Linda Brubaker
Biology Medicine
For more than a century, doctors thought urine was sterile. Now, microbiology breakthroughs are revolutionizing diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections.
Connected Behaviors
Lee Alan Dugatkin
Biology
Animals use complex social networks to disseminate practices that are distinct to their geographic and cultural groups.
