SERIOUS SPACE JUNK
At any one time as much as 10 million pieces of human made debris are estimated to be in orbit...
If there are aliens sharing the universe with us, then he must be pretty fed up with the amount of rubbish we're dumping into space. It's no wonder they don't visit our part of the galaxy much.
Our heavenly sphere, once offered unobstructed panoramas of Earth’s blue vistas and (aside from the occasional fleeting visit by wandering comets) the man in the moon could relax in its infinite isolation. However, since the arrival of the space age, the heavens have become a pretty crowded place and today any heavenly dwellers seeking to enjoy the view are likely to get a bullet-like shard of paint through the eye for their trouble.
In fact since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, mankind has lofted more than 6,500 satellites into our cosmic backyard. Add to that some spent rocket stages and other bits and bobs travelling at more than 28,000 kilometres per hour and (one or two collisions later) you have swarms of space debris more numerous than the locust visited upon Ancient Egypt (and far more dangerous).
In 2005 at least 13 nuclear reactor fuel cores, eight thermoelectric generators, and 32 nuclear reactors were known to be in Earth orbits below 1700 kilometres.
The oldest debris still in orbit is Vanguard 1, America's second satellite launched in 1958.
In 1965 during the first American space walk, Gemini 4 astronaut Edward White, lost a glove. For a month the glove stayed in orbit with a speed of 28000 kph becoming the most dangerous garmetn in history.
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