Screenshot of social media post. Reads, "Everyone was saying that the May geomag activity had no impact on the satellites. Of course we knew this was wrong. Over one hundred sats re-entered during this period and now a paper is showing that thousands of Starlinks had to move. Holy fuck. Imagine if those thousands had to re-enter. This. Is. Insane. We. Must. Stop. Launching. Shit. NOW. https://spaceweather.com/"
Would they have the Mass to do any damage?
That's an excellent question. Also, does any of it need to make it to the ground to do harm to our atmosphere? Needs more research. Prof. Lawler has a whole thing on it: https://mastodon.online/@sundogplanets@mastodon.social/112768381105263805
Intuitively the answer would be no, since effects on the atmosphere should be greater from directly in the atmosphere. Is there any reason to assume that ground contact would be required?
Starlink sats are tiny - only ~260kg each. Even thousands re-entering would be comparable to what Earth naturally experiences from meteoroids (about 48 tons daily). The aluminium/composite materials aren't particularly exotic or harmful when they vaporize in the upper atmopshere. It's a non-issue compared to actual space debris concerns.
Night sky is gonna be lit then.