Space debris
Space debris, also known as space junk, refers to defunct human-made objects in Earth orbit that no longer serve any useful function. This includes defunct spacecraft, abandoned rocket stages, and fragments from breakups and collisions. As of April 2025, over 40,230 artificial objects are regularly tracked in orbit, and more than 128 million pieces smaller than 1 cm were estimated to be in orbit in 2019. Space debris matters because it poses a serious collision hazard to active spacecraft and satellites. Even tiny pieces traveling at 10 km/s can damage solar panels and optics. With more collisions creating more debris, scientists warn of a cascading effect that could threaten the entire space environment. The International Space Station must actively maneuver to avoid known debris paths.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: “Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, orbital space debris or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in space – principally in Earth orbit – which no longer serve a useful function.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “As of April 2025, the European Space Agency's Space Environment statistics reported 40,230 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth regularly tracked by Space Surveillance Networks and maintained in their catalogue.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “The average impact speed of collisions in Low Earth Orbit is 10 km/s with maximums reaching above 14 k”