Currently the leading producers of space pollution are:
China at 40 %
United States with 27.5 %
Russia with 25.5 %
The Chinese earned their title by deliberately destroying a defunct weather satellite in 2007 the purpose... to test a missile! The completely unnecessary explosion produced more than 2,800 pieces of free-flying shrapnel.
What is all this garbage in space? Well so far we have abandoned over 10,000 dead spacecrafts, rocket bodies and other extinct technological advances. The growing cloud of space garbage is a problem because it makes the task of operating satellites increasingly difficult. So in essence we are creating roadblocks for ourselves and our scientific advancements by not responsibily disposing of our belongings. We already have to worry about all the Universe's own dangers: Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, Solar Flares and so on... we shouldn't have to worry about our own space shuttles catapulting themselves back to Earth!
This is not an over-reaction either, the dangers of space shrapnel are already presenting themselves. Last year witnessed what is said to be the first in-space collision. A deactivated Russian military satellite crashed into and destroyed one of Iridium’s mobile communications spacecrafts.
Image credit: NASA
Source: Topicfire.com
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