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Space Is Just a Little Bit Closer Than Expected

Posted by timothy on from the winter-shrinkage dept.

SpuriousLogic points out a BBC story which begins "The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are much lower than expected, a US Air Force satellite has found. Currently, the ionosphere — a layer of charged particles that envelopes the planet — is at an altitude of about 420km, some 200km lower than expected. The behaviour of the ionosphere is important because disturbances in its structure can upset satellite communications and radar."

3 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm suddenly almost halfway towards my goal of making it into space. Take THAT everyone else at the class reunion!

  2. Re:Wow by aaron+alderman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What about nothingofvaluewaslost?
    Could even throw in a correlationisnotcausation or maybe vaporware.

  3. WTF??? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    WTF? We've been launching rockets for 50 years to probe the space around us and they're only figuring this out now?

    Or has this changed from before?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."