Zombiesats.

First off, that picture’s badass.
Second, this is proof that we’re all going to be massively screwed in the coming year or so.

Apparently the sun gave off a massive fart (read: solar storm) and blasted the Galaxy 15 satellite out of radio operation. It’s still working, but is now drifting in one of two “gravity wells” that house a lot of our space debris.
Those in charge of monitoring such things as the crap we dump into the vacuum that surrounds us say that it’s not likely the Galaxy 15 will collide with other active satellites, but there is concern over the fact that its still-working communications package might interfere with nearby orbiters.
The plan? Either shoot it with lasers (ooh, big surprise there) or just wait until its orbit decays and it hurtles through the earth’s atmosphere to rejoin us. Here’s my question: are they certain Galaxy 15 went offline due to the solar storm, or was that just a coincidental incident? If it wasn’t, then we’d better get the gravity wells ready for a whole bunch of incoming defunct debris, as these solar flares supposedly aren’t going to be backing off any time soon.

And yes, I checked—apparently “zombiesat” is an actual technical term. Snazzy.

Today’s song: Consequence by The Notwist