When our species has become extinct, is there anything that would survive long enough to tell the next intelligent species to arise that we were a technological civilization?
When our species has become extinct, is there anything that would survive long enough to tell the next intelligent species to arise that we were a technological civilization?
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A layer of space trash floating around the planet
A lot of that will eventually make its way back down to earth.
Some will still be there, especially in higher orbits, but the majority will eventually see orbital decay.
I'd guess that even in the higher orbits the manmade materials will eventually fall down or spin away over the span of a few hundred thousand years. Even if it is currently in a perfect locked orbit, there will be some amount of mass loss over time that will alter the orbit. But I'm no physicist, so i easily could be wrong
Idk about mass loss, but space is full of small rocks and dust moving at high speeds. Impacts from those might not make a big difference on the human timescale, but a longer one, it would absolutely cause a shift in orbital momentum.