This Is What 60 Years of Space Junk Swarming Around Earth Looks Like

If you were out in space at the distance the camera would have to be in this video, you probably wouldn’t actually notice a whole lot of space junk—unless a piece of it ripped through your body at several hundred miles per hour. The International Space Station has had to take evasive maneuvers to dodge tiny bits of space junk for that reason, and this video gives a solid idea of just what a problem it can become.

Each little bit of space junk over the years might not seem like much, but it builds up over time. It might not actually look like this from out in space, but make no mistake—this visualization was made by Dr. Stuart Grey, lecturer at University College London and part of the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory, and it uses real data on trackable pieces of space junk. Each dot, while not to scale, is a piece of refuse floating around our planet and endangering space missions.

(via Gizmodo)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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