By Alimat Aliyeva

Massive satellite groupings in Earth's orbit in the future may become a threat to its atmosphere due to magnetic dust produced by space technology, Azernews reports, citing the study by Sierra Salter-Hunt, a doctoral student at the University of Iceland.

The author of the article suggested that dust from satellite constellations can weaken the magnetosphere of our planet by half, protecting the atmosphere from solar radiation.

According to Salter-Hunt estimates, 500,000 to 1 million private satellites will be able to orbit our planet in the coming decades. When all these satellites eventually fall to Earth, it could dramatically increase the amount of cosmic dust in the atmosphere — billions of times higher than current levels.

It is currently unclear where all this cosmic dust will end up, but Salter-Hunt believes that it will probably settle in the upper part of the ionosphere, an area of the atmosphere at an altitude of 80 to 644 kilometers above Earth.

In the worst-case scenario, according to the scientists, increased radiation levels bombarding the upper ionosphere may begin to blow away the outer boundaries of our atmosphere. Such processes naturally occur on Mars and Mercury. But it may take centuries and millennia to implement the worst option.