this is kinda mind blowing
Litter in space
Like other modern marvels, space exploration has yielded huge technological benefits for humankind, but it can’t help but have the same major side effect as many other advances: producing waste.The rockets, satellites and probes we have sent into orbit over the decades have created a fast-moving debris field that contains hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk—even a one-centimeter piece of which can damage or destroy a spacecraft worth millions, or billions, of dollars. The International Space Station and its crew have had to dodge dangerous debris several times in the past few years.
This threat has doubled in the past few years, thanks to antisatellite weapons testing and space collisions that are producing ever more debris. And scientists say that this space shrapnel is being produced faster than it will burn up in the atmosphere. This means that vehicles in orbit will face an ever-riskier path around the planet unless there is an international cleanup effort.
