I’m reblogging myself because I read the source. The lead scientist involved theorized that it was going fast enough that A) it would not have burnt up in our atmosphere, and B) it would not have been caught in Earth’s orbit. Essentially meaning, the first man made object launched into space was a manhole cover that’s still traveling the cosmic abyss.
YEET
Earth escape velocity is just under 7,000 miles per hour. This was traveling almost 18 times that speed. That thing is definitely out in space. And not just in orbit about earth either, it’s fuckin *gone* gone!
Wait I did more research!!! From the earth’s surface the escape velocity from the entire fuckin solar system is under 30,000 miles per hour. Bout one quater of the speed that thing was going. I can’t believe the first, and fastest, interstellar message we sent was the equivalent of squeezing the lid off a pringles tube at your friend.
