Every single satellite orbiting Earth, in a single image

BGR ^ | 3-6-14 | Zach Epstein

[kingattax]

As we gear up for an era where space travel becomes more common thanks to the efforts of companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, territory that was unchartered just a few decades ago could soon become commonplace.

Even those of us with no interest in traveling to space have come to rely on The Final Frontier more so than ever before, thanks to an increasing number of services that rely on satellites orbiting the Earth. Cell phones and in-dash navigation systems rely on GPS satellites, Dish and DirecTV obviously use satellite feeds, and satellite communications systems offered by the likes of Inmarsat and Iridium continue to proliferate across various industries. Just how crowded is it getting up there above the Earth’s atmosphere?

The answer: Pretty crowded.

Vala Afshar, chief marketing officer of network infrastructure company Extreme Networks, recently posted a fascinating image on Twitter. Simply put, the image shows every single satellite in space that is currently orbiting Earth, in one graphic.

The picture speaks for itself:

[kingattax]

PINGO

[KneelBeforeZod]

shopped

[wastedyears]

Who took that picture?

:D

[Enterprise]

"Who took that picture?"

The same people who filmed "Gravity."

:)

[knarf]

invented by a chief marketing exec

[Gaffer]

Not every single one. Other side?

[Libloather]

That’s what aliens see? Probably think it’s a toilet.

[PubliusMM]

Or, maybe a virus...

[mabarker1]

http://science.nasa.gov/iSat/?group=SMD

http://spaceweather.com/flybys/

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Obviously, the earth from space does not look anything like that. The Milky Way looks like a fuzzy blur, but when Galileo turned his telescope towards it, he could resolve individual stars. If one made a scale model of the Milky Way with the sun 10 feet across, the nearest star would be over 10,000 miles away. If you viewed the earth from 50,000 miles, about a fifth the way to the moon, and took a picture of the entire earth with a telephoto lens, and a 40 Megapixel sensor, the largest satellite would not fill (subtend) one pixel, and would probably not be bright enough to even register on the camera's sensor above noise.

There is a lot of debris that cannot even be tracked because it is so small, yet it does present a hazard.

[WildWeasel]

Ha ha. I see the next left wing anti capitalism movement now that global warming fad is fading and the anti-Fracking movement is losing momentum.

Really, there’s so much space above us the picture is just for shock value. Move along, nothing to see here but a PM interesting picture.

[left that other site]

Yes...But can any of them deflect an asteroid?

[KoRn]

The exaggeration with the size of those satellites borders on disinformation. The ‘Low Information” idiots that take everything they see at face value will see this and believe the Earth is literally COVERED like this, and is wondering how we’re not freezing due to the Sun being reflected away.

[DCBryan1]

Who took that picture?

THIS ONE!

[Resolute Conservative]

Someone here one time posted that all the alien abductions reported on earth are in reality aliens dumping their trash here.

[zeugma]

Real time satellite tracker from JPL

[InvisibleChurch]

Earth adopts the ‘Don Johnson’ look.

[minnesota_bound]

WALL-E

[Doomonyou]

Not every single one. Other side?

No, they all came around to one side to be in the picture.