As of 2025, over 131 million pieces of debris orbit Earth

There are trillions of pieces of space trash that are too small to be tracked

Although scientists monitor more than 24,000 pieces of large orbital debris, space junk can be as small as a paint fleck. The density of this trash is steadily increasing with the growth of the space industry on Earth.

Space trash is making low Earth orbit increasingly dangerous for spacecraft

Millions of fragments from satellites, rockets, and other spacecraft that are no longer operational move thousands of meters per second as they circle Earth. Even a piece of debris a centimeter in size can cause mission-ending damage to space stations, telescopes, and astronauts.

In 2023, there were nearly as many payloads in LOE as trackable pieces of debris

In 2021, the European Space Agency estimated that more than 130 million space debris objects larger than 1 millimeter were in low Earth orbit, though only about 22,000 were being tracked. As of late 2025, the tracked total exceeds 49,000.

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

Visualize the impact of approximately 9,000 metric tons of satellites and space debris orbiting Earth—70% of which, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, do so in low Earth orbit.

Visualizing Earth's space garbage

An unsavory byproduct of humanity's brilliant exploration of space, the Moon, and more, is the rapid production of space debris floating around in orbit. Its estimated over 25,000 objects are in orbit, a number that grows everyday as satellites are decommissioned, rockets enter orbit, and more. Now, you can visualize what this debris looks like from a zoomed-out perspective with this brief video.

You are 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be hit by space trash

In 2023, about 1,500 pieces of space junk fell to Earth, with most consisting of payload fragmentation debris. The vast majority that falls back to Earth burns up before reaching the surface, making it three times less likely to be struck by space trash than by a meteorite.

By 2028, a space trash-avoiding maneuver is expected to occur every 18 seconds

As the number of active Starlink satellites increases, greater efforts will be required to keep low Earth orbit free of debris, sparking a new technological space race. NASA has found that using lasers to manage small and medium debris could save up to $9B over 30 years.

By 2030, experts estimate a 1 in 1000 chance of a plane being hit by space debris

As more satellites and spacecraft are launched, the rate of space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere, including those that do not burn up completely, increases. International space agencies and air traffic control systems will need to coordinate to develop standardized methods and technical solutions to prevent and minimize future crisis scenarios.

Earth is constantly bombarded by material from space

Most of this matter is composed of small particles, with any smaller than 33 feet in diameter burning up in the atmosphere. Larger asteroids can reach the ground, and those larger than several thousand feet cause global damage, including earthquakes and tsunamis.

Because it loses more atmospheric gas to outer space than the cosmic dust it collects as it moves through space, the Earth loses about 50,000 metric tons of mass every year.

Watch a visualization of what it would look like to move along Earth's surface as fast as the International Space Station, or about 23 times the speed of sound.

Rising satellite numbers pose increased risks of planes being hit by falling debris

Projections of more than 100,000 satellites in space by the 2030s—eight times the number in 2025—highlight a growing threat to aviation. Experts suggest the odds could reach seven in 10,000 annually by 2035, alongside higher risks to people on the ground.

Commercializing space debris removal may follow the commercialization of launches

Active debris removal is likely to focus on larger derelict objects, which are more easily identified and yield better financial returns. One actively researched possibility involves using netting to capture derelict objects before towing them into a controlled descent into an ocean.

If the Earth stopped spinning, 85% of the world's population would experience supersonic winds

The planet's equator moves about 470 meters per second—over 1,000 miles per hour—and air there would continue moving at this speed for several minutes if the ground stopped rotating. These conditions would cause tsunamis, global storms, and fling debris fast enough to destroy nearly all human-made structures.

Lasers could be the most cost-effective tool for clearing dangerous space debris

A NASA study found that lasers from ground- and space-based systems could utilize the momentum of light to safely push smaller debris out of their orbits. These systems would need to be accompanied by amendments to international space law, which prevents any nation from touching debris from another country, among other strategies.

A financial analysis of space trash cleanup strategies identified long-term benefits

Despite significant initial costs, a NASA report found that removing small debris would provide savings from preventing mission-ending damage, which would offset expenses within a decade. Financial benefits would also come from using less fuel for maneuvers to avoid collisions with debris.

Tracking the latest meteorite falls on Earth

Roughly 50 tons of meteorite material arrives on Earth every day, and many of the larger objects survive the hot temperatures of the atmosphere and make landfall. This tracker compiles data from survey sites across the globe to present the latest...

Scientists have proposed using lasers to push space trash into Earth's atmosphere

Such projects would allow most debris to burn up and no longer pose a risk to active satellites, telescopes, and astronauts on space stations. Enacting these plans would require substantial investments from private and governmental space agencies and overcoming international laws that prevent the removal of another country's space equipment.

About 20% of asteroids are metal worlds similar to Earth's core

The biggest of these (that we know of) is 16 Psyche. Measuring 140 miles across, its iron and nickel content is potentially worth 10,000 quadrillion dollars. NASA’s mission to Psyche—reaching the asteroid in 2029—will study it to learn about its formation.

When retired, the International Space Station will undergo a controlled de-orbit

With plans to transition low-Earth orbit operations to private entities, the ISS is expected to be retired by 2030, using a SpaceX de-orbit vehicle. Although reentry will burn up most hardware, NASA intends for any surviving debris to fall into an uninhabited ocean area.

The 1978 prediction of the Kessler syndrome popularized the risks of space trash

A paper published by NASA scientists Don Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais described a scenario where the density of objects in orbit becomes so high that collisions between them create a cascading effect of runaway debris, preventing future space travel. The risks were confirmed from returned telescope parts showing debris impacts.

The International Space Station is slowly falling due to atmospheric drag

To stay in orbit, the largest human-made object in space needs periodic rocket boosts to maintain its orbital speed and height. Its solar panels collect enough energy to power over 60 average US homes each year.

Space archaeology studies space trash in the context of heritage and social meaning

Some orbiting objects, such as Elon Musk's Tesla, have symbolic or historical importance, despite being functionally worthless. The oldest human-made object in Earth's orbit is Vanguard 1, a grapefruit-sized satellite launched in 1958. The strangest may be an experimental, inflatable space station containing live cockroaches.

Space trash forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter

An inactive Russian satellite broke up into nearly 200 pieces, prompting astronauts on the space station to take shelter in a docked spacecraft and a capsule that could be used to escape in case of emergency.

Simulate asteroid impact, mitigation, and defense scenarios

Tens of thousands of asteroids are in orbit in our solar system, and only a fraction come close enough to concern humanity. This simulator allows you to see the big picture scenarios of an asteroid impact, strategies to mitigate its destruction, and how Earth could defend itself.

Orbital spaceflight requires reaching 23 times the speed of sound

After the spacecraft accelerates up to at least 17,500 miles per hour, space tourists can travel in elliptical orbits hundreds of miles above Earth for days or weeks at a time. Suborbital flights instead max out at about 2,200 miles per hour and travel only 50 to 70 miles above Earth's surface for a few minutes.

In 2022, a piece of Challenger was discovered on the ocean floor

While searching for World War II wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a documentary, divers discovered debris on the seafloor that NASA later confirmed to be a piece of Space Shuttle Challenger wreckage. The piece is at least 15-by-15 feet in size and partially buried under sand.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

The next five asteroid approaches

Asteroids are zinging by our planet regularly, and some of them you can see without a telescope. Here's a regularly updated list of the next five asteroid approaches.

In 2018, SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit for publicity

As of February 2023, the vehicle and its mannequin driver—dubbed "Starman"—have completed three and a quarter revolutions around the sun. One paper estimated that the car has a 22% chance of crashing into Earth within the next 15 million years.

Explore an interactive solar system with 3D visualizations of meteor showers—streams of dust-like debris left behind from comets or asteroids that burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Asteroids are often unobserved until they are days away from Earth

Even those large enough to cause local or regional damage are too small, dim, and far away to be observed readily from cosmological distances. New tools, like NASA's NEO Surveyor telescope, aim to address gaps in detection systems.

Excluding using another planet's gravity to redirect the object, it takes less energy for a spacecraft to leave the solar system than to hit the sun.

Earth's smooth, continuous motion as it orbits the sun prevents detectable motion

Although humans are sensitive to acceleration, Earth's nearly circular orbit around the sun and its slow spin relative to its size produce negligibly small, minimally changing accelerations. However, the changing seasons and the day-night cycle are evidence of Earth's movement through space, as verified by satellites and telescopes.

Our solar system is currently traveling through a 'dark matter hurricane'

The phenomenon refers to a stream of cosmic debris, including stars and dark matter, leftover from a small galaxy that passed too close to the Milky Way and was torn apart. There are over 30 such streams known in our galaxy, and the stream intersecting the solar system is predicted to continue to do so for millions of years.

Play a space junk collection game

Developed by Astroscale, a company with a contract from the UK to remove satellites from orbit safely, the game enables players to simulate the company's planned COSMIC mission and test their space debris-catching skills.

Space trash could be cleaned up using a giant inflatable bag

California-based TransAstra has developed and tested a device called Capture Bag, intended to catch anything from small rocks to house-sized boulders. The company claims its system could also be adapted for asteroid capture and mining.

Craters found on the moon and the calculated dates of these impacts, based on rocks returned by the Apollo missions, suggest that Earth was pummeled by asteroids for millions of years—a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.

A SpaceX spacecraft's battery debris survived reentry and crashed into a Florida home

Although NASA expected the debris to disintegrate after it was jettisoned from the International Space Station in 2024, the flight support component survived reentry. No injuries were reported from the incident.

NASA monitors potentially hazardous asteroids and comets

Established in 2016, the Planetary Defense Coordination Office characterizes and tracks asteroids and comets passing within 30 million miles of Earth. Over 40,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered, although estimates suggest that about 14,000 more such objects remain to be found.

What would happen if a massive asteroid struck Earth?

While NASA states that no known asteroid currently threatens Earth, past impacts demonstrate that the risk is real. The agency has tested deflection technology to alter an asteroid's path, as this visualization imagines a worst-case collision scenario.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Asteroids are the rocky remains of the solar system's formation

These celestial bodies were not integrated into the precursors of planets about 4.6 billion years ago and instead continue to orbit the sun, primarily within a band between Mars and Jupiter—the asteroid belt.

Planets' high orbital speeds prevent them from falling into their host star

Although the gravitational force attracts a planet and the star it orbits around, the large speed the planet orbits with, which is acquired during its formation process, causes it to continuously miss the star as it orbits around it. This is analogous to theoretically throwing a baseball horizontally faster and faster until it's fast enough to orbit the Earth while attempting to fall to its surface.

Simulations suggest that a paper airplane launched from the International Space Station would maintain its orientation and gradually descend for 3.5 days before chaotically tumbling down and burning up.

Only 40% of city-destroying asteroids have been detected

Statistical modeling shows that while we have identified the majority of extinction-level asteroids, smaller asteroids that can cause significant damage remain elusive. Some asteroids, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, can't be detected ahead of time since they come from the sun's direction.

Defending Earth against asteroids

This three-minute video overview explains NASA's ambitious test to slightly alter the course of an asteroid by slamming a fast-moving space probe into its surface. Scientists hope to one day, if needed, use the technique to protect Earth from an asteroid impact.

Visualize chaos with the orbit of three or more objects bound by gravity

In this simulation, users can simulate randomized and preset orbital configurations for up to 10 celestial bodies to observe the system's evolution in an interactive 3D space. The same configurations can produce different orbital behavior—a feature of chaos—by making small changes to an object's mass under advanced settings.

Watch visualization of different-sized asteroid impacts

The animations range from a 4-meter-wide asteroid that would burn up in the atmosphere with the impact of 0.6 Hiroshima nuclear bombs to a 940-kilometer asteroid the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, which would produce a mass extinction event.