eli5 why is a higher amount of space junk a problem for us? Why can’t we shoot it away with missiles?
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Most space junk is small. This quote from National Geographic puts it in perspective –
“More than 23,000 known man-made fragments larger than about 4 inches, which is a little wider than two golf balls across, zip around our planet. But those are just the pieces large enough to track. An estimated 500,000 pieces between 0.4 inches and 4 inches across join those larger fragments.”
Almost all of those pieces are much too small to target (not to mention, you just blow them into more even smaller pieces), but even a half inch piece traveling at up to 22,300 mph can smash a hole in a satellite or manned spacecraft.
It really is a problem.
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