A private Japanese company has taken the world’s first close-up photo of an individual piece of space debris, by parking another satellite next to it in orbit. This orbital photo op is the first step in an ongoing mission to capture and destroy potentially hazardous pieces of space junk that are clogging up our sky.
It’s easy to imagine space as a vast, empty frontier. But since the first satellite launched in 1957, the space surrounding our planet has gotten more and more crowded. Human-made space junk — including used rocket stages, decommissioned satellites, frozen fuel and flecks of paint — has been steadily accumulating in Earth’s orbit over the past seven or so decades. Now, the space industry is trying to find ways to remove it.
There is currently more than 9,900 tons (9,000 metric tons) of space junk hanging out in Earth’s orbit. That debris is a veritable minefield for newly launched satellites and spacecraft; even a tiny piece of debris can tear a hole through a spacecraft with enough momentum. It can even pose a threat to people on the ground when it falls from orbit. And the longer that space debris stays in orbit, the more it multiplies. Collisions between defunct satellites or parts of rockets can break larger debris into smaller pieces, making the resulting fragments harder to track and increasing their chances of hitting an active satellite.
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