Scientist predicts Earth will develop rings like Saturn | TheHill - The Hill

As more and more debris accumulates in space and surrounds Earth’s orbit, one researcher believes our planet will eventually develop rings made completely of space junk.

Space junk, or known as space debris, is a growing problem with NASA reporting that there are more than 27,000 pieces of space junk being tracked by the Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) sensors. .

Space debris travels at extremely high speeds, approximately 15,700 mph in low Earth orbit, so even a tiny piece of orbital debris can impact a spacecraft and create big problems.

Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX has carried nearly 900 orbital objects to space this year, according to The Verge.

The former Trump administration put together a national orbital debris research and development plan that sought to reduce space junk by recommending the implementation of deliberate spacecraft designs that limit the generation of new space debris.

tracks and characterizes space junk and urged solutions on how to remove space debris and repurpose it for a productive use. .

It’s not clear if the Trump administration’s report was enacted but the problem of space debris continues on, while the likelihood of Earth developing rings made of space junk, similar to those of Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, isn’t completely clear either. .