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\nThis Valentine\u2019s Day, look to the skies at night and you\u2019ll see stars twinkling, a glistening Moon and perhaps even an orbiting science lab passing by, the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat you can\u2019t see is the thousands of bits of space debris that circle our planet \u2013 remnants of past scientific and technical endeavours, evidence of five decades spent in space.\n<\/p>\n
\nThis last half century has seen a revolution in how we live, work and communicate, with about half the world’s population now accessing the internet, a percentage that is rapidly increasing as more and more countries get connected.\n<\/p>\n
\nThis and other vital services, including meteorology, climate research, telecommunications, broadcasting and navigation depend on satellites in space \u2013 yet their environment is becoming ever more crowded and unsafe due to space debris.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs of January 2019, the number of debris objects estimated to be in orbit are:\n<\/p>\n
\nMost of these pieces have the potential to damage functioning satellites or even destroy them altogether.\n<\/p>\n
\nIf we continue as we are, without measures to tackle this technological trash, the most useful orbits around Earth will become inhospitable to our critical space infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n
\nTo protect the planet we love, teams at ESA are working to tackle the pollution of space, as part of the Agency’s space safety activities<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nESA\u2019s Clean Space initiative is working to prevent the creation of space debris in orbit and to minimise the effect of space missions on our environment, and is planning a future mission to remove a ‘piece’ of debris from orbit (find out more in the Clean Space blog<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n \nESA\u2019s Space Debris Office<\/a> constantly monitors more than 20 000 debris objects in orbit, issuing warnings and guidance to the operators of ESA spacecraft.\n<\/p>\n \nFind out more about space debris in our film \u201cSpace Debris \u2013 A Journey to Earth<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nThis Valentine’s Day, look to the skies at night and you’ll see stars twinkling, a glistening Moon and perhaps even an orbiting science lab passing by, the International Space Station.\n<\/p>\n \nWhat you can’t see is the thousands of bits of space debris that circle our planet – remnants of past scientific and technical endeavours, evidence of five decades spent in space.\n<\/p>\n \nThis last half century has seen a revolution in how we live, work and communicate, with about half the world’s population now accessing the internet, a percentage that is rapidly increasing as more and more countries get connected.\n<\/p>\n \nThis and other vital services, including meteorology, climate research, telecommunications, broadcasting and navigation depend on satellites in space – yet their environment is becoming ever more crowded and unsafe due to space debris.\n<\/p>\n \nAs of January 2019, the number of debris objects estimated to be in orbit are:\n<\/p>\n \nMost of these pieces have the potential to damage functioning satellites or even destroy them altogether.\n<\/p>\n \nIf we continue as we are, without measures to tackle this technological trash, the most useful orbits around Earth will become inhospitable to our critical space infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n \nTo protect the planet we love, teams at ESA are working to tackle the pollution of space, as part of the Agency’s space safety activities<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nESA’s Clean Space initiative is working to prevent the creation of space debris in orbit and to minimise the effect of space missions on our environment, and is planning a future mission to remove a ‘piece’ of debris from orbit (find out more in the Clean Space blog<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n