The Peril of Space Junk — A Catastrophe Waiting to Happen

23,000 pieces of junk are spinning out there like a beehive around the earth

A computer-generated image representing space debris as could be seen from high Earth orbit. The two main debris fields are the ring of objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and the cloud of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO). Courtesy of Wikipedia

A 22-ton Chinese rocket is hurtling towards earth as I’m writing this.

The chances are it’ll land in the Pacific Ocean without any mishap. But there are no guarantees.