Space Junk

Picture Courtesy of CosmOnline

Dangers of Junk


A 1mm metal chip can cause as much damage as a .22-caliber bullet

A pea-sized lump of debris moving at about 8 km per second is as dangerous as a 180 kg safe travelling at 100 km per hour.

A metal sphere the size of a tennis ball is as deadly as 25 sticks of dynamite.


Since the late 1950's, debris has increased to about 14000 for objects bigger than 10 cm in diameter.


Since the launch of Sputnik in the 1950's, there are 6500 satellites in orbit. Some 3000 satellites are operating in orbit at any one time.


In 2005, there were 13 collisions between objects.

It is predicted that by 2012, there will be 130 collisions between objects.

Some major collisions include a fragment of Ariane rocket that struck a French military satellite, cutting its 20 ft boom in half in 1996 and a 950 kg retired Russian satellite collided with a 560 kg operational satellite in 2009.

For more information go to http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2011/07/04/close-earth-space-bit-rubbish