The remains of a Russian rocket may have been responsible for the collision with a Chinese military satellite back in March, a Harvard scientist has revealed.
Space debris. Credit: Johan Swanepoel / Shutterstock
Space junk is becoming more of a threat as more objects are sent into orbit. Credit: Johan Swanepoel / Shutterstock
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts suggests this may be the first confirmed space collision in over a decade - a scenario that will become all too common as more objects are launched into orbit due to advances in technology.
Read more: How Fujitsu is helping clean up space junk
When originally found, it was unclear whether the Yunai 1-02 satellite had suffered from a fault or whether it had collided with something in orbit.
The satellite was shattered into dozens of pieces by the incident, however, McDowell has suggested there are even more than this that have yet to be detected.
The Space Force updated its record on Saturday regarding a small piece of a Russian Zenit-2 rocket launched in 1996 colliding with a satellite.
McDowell has revealed it is likely the impact was with a smaller object anywhere between 4 and 20 inches wide.
"Even small things can cause serious damage when they hit your satellite at orbital velocity, as this incident shows," he tweeted on August 15.
Despite the damage, it remains likely Yunhai remains somewhat intact from the collision, although it is currently unknown whether it can still perform the role it was designed for.
This is the first known collision of two orbital objects since 2009 when a Russian satellite smashed into an Iridium comms satellite.
A prior incident also occurred in 2007 between an American and Russian spacecraft. The combined junk ejected from both of these incidents has increased the amount of space debris in orbit by around 70%, NASA reports.
Between the 2009 and 2021 incidents, there have been several close calls. An object travelling at nearly 46671 km/h (29,000 mph) nearly collided with the International Space Station in 2011 and a viral video showing a near-miss between a SpaceX and OneWeb rocket was debunked earlier this year.
National Geographic also reports another close call in late 2020.
Each time one of these collisions happens, they eject more debris into orbit, which increases the risk of further collisions in the future.
This has led to a number of initiatives to actively remove junk from space in order to make the Earth orbit that little bit safer.
Read more: ESA to send huge claw into space to remove space junk
"Collisions are proportional to the square of the number of things in orbit," McDowell told Space.com, adding that as more objects are sent into orbit, space junk will become a progressively major concern.
"That's all very worrying and is an additional reason why you want to remove these big objects from orbit," he added. "They can generate this other debris that's smaller."
Back to Homepage
Back to Aerospace & Defence
Back to Technology & Innovation