Elon Musk's Massive Rocket Explosion May Have Caused Significant Atmospheric Pollution [View all]

Feb 8, 9:00 AM EST
by Frank Landymore

Tons and tons of it.



Image by Marcus Haworth via Instagram


When a multi-ton spacecraft blows up mid-air, you can't just brush aside its environmental impact.

Following the explosion of the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship, which sent fiery streaks of debris raining over the Caribbean last month, a scientist warned that the rocket's spectacular demise may have caused significant amounts of atmospheric pollution.

"This event potentially released an estimated 45.5 tonnes of metal oxides and 40 tonnes of reactive nitrogen into the upper atmosphere," wrote University College London researcher Connor Barker in a LinkedIn post, which was highlighted this week by Space.com.

That's about 35 percent of all the aluminum that enters the atmosphere from meteors every year, Barker estimated. The researcher recently published a catalog of air pollutant emissions associated with rocket launches.

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