There are a lot of satellites, and a lot of trash, around our planet — and the quantities are only going to get higher.

There are roughly 1.1 million debris fragments larger than 0.04 inches and about 40,500 fragments larger than 4 inches in orbit according to the ESA. NASA states that debris can reach speeds of 18,000 ...

We've deployed so many satellites into space over the last few decades that we now have a massive orbital junk problem. The European Space Agency (ESA) noted in its Annual Space Environment Report ...

"Our behavior with greenhouse gases here on Earth over the past 100 years is having an effect on how we operate satellites over the next 100 years." ...

At least three old satellites or rocket bodies fall to Earth every day, a new report reveals. Some experts think it's a ...

The approximately eight-minute-long film "Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?" attempts to answer its conjecture with supportive statistics and orbital projections ... things in Earth orbit tend ...

Scientists say defunct satellites and spent rocket stages returning to Earth, from the thousands launched every year, can be ...

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. Earth’s space junk problem isn’t just growing—it’s accelerating. According to ...

However, there is a growing problem right ... a long enough period, Earth’s orbit could be clogged by junk. The ESA states that the time to actively clean up our orbital ecosystem has come.

That problem will only ... on impact with other debris. Eventually, the ESA hopes to solidify a concept called "orbital capacity," which dictates how full low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit ...