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Atmospheric entry

Animated illustration of various phases as a estraterrestrial body enters the Earth's atmosphere to show as a meteor and land as a meteoroid
Atmospheric drag and mechanics heating will cause atmospherical breakup capable of utterly disintegrating smaller objects. These forces could cause objects with lower compressive strength to explode.

Manned house vehicles should be slowed to subsonic speeds before parachutes or air brakes could also be deployed. Such vehicles have kinetic energies usually between fifty and 1800 MJoules, and atmospherical dissipation is that the solely means of disbursal the mechanical energy. the quantity of rocket propellent needed to slow the vehicle would be nearly adequate the quantity wont to accelerate it at the start, and it's therefore extremely impractical to use retro rockets for the complete Earth re-entry procedure. whereas the hot temperature generated at the surface of the warmth defend is attributable to adiabatic compression, the vehicle's mechanical energy is ultimately lost to gas friction (viscosity) once the vehicle has gone by. different smaller energy losses embody black body radiation directly from the new gasses and chemical reactions between ionising gasses.

Ballistic warheads and expendable vehicles don't need retardation at re-entry, and in truth, ar created efficient therefore on maintain their speed.

For Earth, atmospherical entry happens on top of the Kármán line at associate degree altitude of over a hundred kilometer (62 mi.) on top of the surface, whereas at Venus atmospherical entry happens at 250 kilometer (155 mi.) and at Mars atmospherical entry at concerning eighty kilometer (50 mi.). Uncontrolled, objects accelerate through the atmosphere at extreme velocities below the influence of Earth's gravity. Most controlled objects enter at hypersonic speeds attributable to their suborbital (e.g., intercontinental missile return vehicles), orbital (e.g., the house Shuttle), or boundless (e.g., meteors) trajectories. varied advanced technologies are developed to alter atmospherical return and flight at extreme velocities. another low speed methodology of controlled atmospherical entry is buoyancy[1] that is appropriate for planetary entry wherever thick atmospheres, sturdy gravity or each factors complicate high-speed hyperbolic entry, like the atmospheres of Venus, Titan and therefore the gas giants.[2]