Two space satellites smashed into each other on Tuesday in an unprecedented orbital accident. Government agencies are still assessing the aftermath, but early radar measurements have detected hundreds of pieces of debris that could pose a risk to other spacecraft.
As first reported by CBS News, a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and a communication satellite owned by the US firm Iridium collided some 790 kilometres above northern Siberia on Tuesday.
"This is the first time that two intact spacecraft have accidentally run into each other," says Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office in Houston, Texas.
Danger to satellites
The NASA office, which detects debris measuring less than 10 centimetres across, has just begun its assessment of the damage. But the US military, which tracks objects spanning 10 centimetres or more, has already detected more than 500 pieces of debris from the collision, Julie Ziegenhorn, a spokesperson for the military's Strategic Command. The destruction of the Chinese weather satellite Fengyun-1C in 2007 generated more than 2000 pieces of orbital debris of that size. Until now, fragments of that satellite accounted for more than 25% of all catalogued debris in low-Earth orbit.
The chance the debris will collide with other spacecraft is still unclear. The International Space Station, which orbits at an altitude of some 350 kilometres, does not seem to be at immediate risk of colliding with the debris.
But the detritus could potentially hit a number of Earth observation, communication, and scientific satellites. If that happened, the satellite it struck could itself break up, creating ever more space junk in a cascade effect.
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