Why do images of earth from space not contain satellites and other space junk?
In: Earth Science
The circumference of the earth is about 40,000 Km. At the altitude where satellites orbit (between 500 Km and 2000 KM) above the Earth, the circumference would be closer to 45,000 KM.
A satellite can be about as big as a small school bus. So lets say 5 meters.
there are reported to be 21,000 objects tracked in orbit (and a lot more small debris that cant be tracked).
So, there is about 1 object for every 2 Km of circumference , not to mention that satellites do not all orbit at the equator.
The simple answer is that there is no way to take a picture of the Earth with more than a few in view at any time. The Earth is HUGE.
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