DEADLY SPACE JUNK

Hurtling around the Earth at thousands of kilometres per hour, out-of-control space debris can have a devastating effect on anything that crosses its path

It’s perhaps the most electrifying sequence in the awe-inspiring blockbuster film Gravity – the moment a blizzard of incoming space debris travelling at terrifying speed lays waste to everything in its path, destroying both the International Space Station and an orbiting Space Shuttle, leaving two spacewalking astronauts adrift and fighting for their lives. Fortunately, though, it’s the kind of thing that could only happen in a movie… or is it? While the debris storm in Gravity is created by a foolhardy missile test on a defunct satellite, space scientists today are increasingly concerned that something very similar could happen by accident, with a runaway cascade of collisions leaving large areas of near-Earth space dangerously inaccessible. If that happens, the effects wouldn’t just be felt by a few orbiting astronauts –…

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All About Space Tour of the Universe (Digital) - 1 Issue, All About Space Tour of the Universe 4th Edition

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