What is space junk and why should we be worried?
Space experts are increasingly worried about the amount of 'space junk' in orbit - but what is space junk?
- Space junk is the term used to describe man-made rubbish floating in space – often litter from space exploration, including spanners, nuts, bolts, gloves and shards of space craft.
- The majority of the debris in space is believed to consist of small particles but some objects are larger, including spent rocket stages, defunct satellites and collision fragments.
- As many as ten million pieces of human-made debris are estimated to be circulating in space at any one time.
- Experts believe that global positioning systems, international phone connections, television signals and weather forecasts could be affected by increasing levels of space junk.
- The windows of space shuttles are often chipped by space junk when returning to earth.
- The orbital paths of space shuttles are constantly monitored for debris
- A crash between a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and an Iridium Communications Inc. satellite in February 2009 left around 1,500 pieces of junk whizzing around the earth at 4.8 miles a second.
- The International Space Station is fitted with special impact shield known as the Whipple Bumper, which is designed to protect the structure from damage caused by collisions with minor debris.
