Taking These 50 Objects Out of Orbit Would Cut Danger From Space Junk in Half

"Old rocket parts and decommissioned satellites are whizzing around in low Earth orbit, where they risk colliding with the ever-growing constellations of modern satellites being launched. A new listing of the 50 most concerning pieces of space debris in low-Earth orbit is dominated by relics more than a quarter-century old, primarily dead rockets left to hurtle through space at the end of their missions."

"The 50 objects identified by McKnight and his coauthors are the ones most likely to drive the creation of more space junk in low-Earth orbit (LEO) through collisions with other debris fragments. The objects are whizzing around the Earth at nearly 5 miles per second, flying in a heavily trafficked part of LEO between 700 and 1,000 kilometers (435 to 621 miles) above the Earth."

Fifty objects in low-Earth orbit pose the highest risk of generating additional debris through collisions. The hazardous set is dominated by relics deposited before 2000, with 76 percent placed last century and 88 percent classified as rocket bodies. These objects orbit between about 700 and 1,000 kilometers at roughly 5 miles per second in heavily trafficked lanes. Collisions at orbital velocities create countless fragments and can trigger cascading collisions known as Kessler Syndrome. Larger, higher-altitude debris produces long-lived fragments that can remain in orbit for centuries. Most listed objects originated from Russia/the Soviet Union (34), China (10), and the United States (3).

Read at WIRED