Footage from what should be the camera of Astronaut Well Sunita Williams, after it became detached from Williams’ suit during a 7-hour space walk and became part of the growing problem of space junk (2006).
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In 2009, nearly 500 miles above Siberia, an inactive Russian satellite and a U.S.based communication satellite collided, bursting into a cloud of thousands of pieces of debris.
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More than 23,000 known man-made fragments larger than about 4 inches, zip around our planet. An estimated 500,000 smaller pieces join those larger fragments. Most of that debris sits within 1,250 miles of Earth's surface, home to lots of satellites. And while space is big even the tiniest bits of man-made flotsam can be problematic for active earth orbiters because of their breakneck speeds.
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Space junk can impact other objects at over 22,300 mph, faster than a speeding bullet. Collisions with those tiny pieces (like a paint fragment or urine crystals) often leave pits and dings in the many satellites, telescopes, and other objects orbiting our planet.
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The momentous event of the Sputnik launch in 1957 heralded the start of the Space Age as humans began to explore ever further away from our home world, a feat that has been repeated in more than 4,700 launches around the globe.
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While some of the junk will lose altitude over time and burn up in Earth's atmosphere, there's a lot of stuff up there. Even without new launches or major explosions, the space junk already in low Earth orbit is so abundant that it will likely continue to multiply over the centuries as orbiting pieces collide.
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An electronic space whip is intended to knock debris out of orbit, sending it to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Other proposals include giant magnets, harpoons, and nets to safely whittle down the growing debris cloud. Many nations are tackling the problem from the other side of the equation, ensuring that any future man-made orbiters sent to soar above Earth's surface have an appropriate end-of-life plan to limit the growing cloud of debris that envelops our home planet.
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Source: National Geographic.