Our visualisation of space debris has just been chosen as Science Photo Library‘s clip of the week.
Satellites are shown in red, everything else in blue (ranging from flecks of paint to entire discarded rocket stages). The space between geostationary orbit and the near-Earth orbits is relatively empty, but in the close-up at the end the number of pieces of debris and junk around the Earth is seen to be vast. This animation is created from data of 13,977 actual objects tracked by NORAD and is shown correct for 30th May 2013.
SPL’s Clip of the Week
Our stock images at SPL
Our stock animations at SPL – part 1
Our stock animations at SPL – part 2