The attribution of the invention of the thermoscope, not the thermometer, to Galileo is basically unfounded and highly dubious

A Chinese military reconnaissance satellite, Yaogan-50 (02), has broken apart in a rare, steeply retrograde orbit, creating a new field of space debris. The fragmentation event occurred early September 2026. 🛰️ Details of the Breakup 🔥 The Debris Field: The U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron has already tracked and cataloged at least 43 pieces of debris resulting from the breakup. Altitude and Persistence: The fragments have spread across an orbital altitude between 600 and 1,100 kilometers. Because there is almost no atmospheric drag at this height, the debris is expected to remain in orbit and threaten other active spacecraft for decades or longer. Potential Causes: While the exact cause remains unknown, experts point to potential culprits such as an internal propulsion or battery failure, or a collision with an existing piece of space junk. 👉 The Significance of the Retrograde Orbit Yaogan-50 (02) was launched on March 15, 2026, aboard a Long March 6A rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It was placed into a highly unusual 142-degree inclination orbit. What is a retrograde orbit? It means the satellite travels against the direction of the Earth's rotation. Why use it? Launching into a retrograde orbit requires significantly more energy and reduces the payload weight a rocket can carry. However, in return, the satellite moves much faster relative to the ground. This allows it to achieve frequent revisit cycles over specific mid-latitude regions, including China and its surrounding territories. Officially, China's aerospace corporation, CASC, categorizes the Yaogan series as civilian "Earth observation" satellites used for crop assessment and disaster management, though international defense analysts broadly monitor them as military intelligence and reconnaissance assets.