• Question: How vmany bits of space ship are there floating our solar system?

    Asked by kaitlyno to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Currently there are approximately 2,500 artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. They don’t all orbit at the same distance out from the Earth, but some regions are popular (e.g. a radius that means they rotate at the same speed as Earth, and so stay above the same place all the time). It’s getting quite crowded out there! Take a look at this image, each point represents a satellite or piece of ‘space junk’.

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      There are some places who’s main job is just to keep track of all this debris so that nothing hits the space station, other satellites or similar.
      Even a screw that gets loose, or a fleck or paint, when it is travelling at about 17,000 mph – much faster than a bullet – can be very dangerous.

      A few years ago, the Chinese tested an anti-satellite weapon out, attempting to shoot down and old derelict satellite. They hit it and it shattered into thousands of pieces, which made the problem of space debris far worse in one single action.

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