Farmers React To Debris Believed To Be From SpaceX Capsule

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Space junk, now confirmed to be from a SpaceX capsule, has crashed into a farming community in rural Australia. Orbital debris, or any human-made object lingering in space that no longer fulfills a desirable purpose, is an increasingly urgent problem. Reports suggest that there are at least 170 million pieces of space junk larger than 1mm orbiting Earth. That detritus poses significant danger to satellites and spacecraft, and occasionally even plummets to Earth’s surface. The quantity of orbital trash is growing so massive that Earth may even develop Saturn-like rings of garbage.

As the quantity of debris in low Earth orbit increases, so do the odds of that debris causing destruction and chaos. Debris that does not burn up on reentry comes hurtling to Earth at breakneck speeds, potentially crashing into inhabited areas. Collisions in space, too, are becoming increasingly common. In-orbit collisions have the potential to disrupt both scientific research and telecommunications services, creating an expensive problem for governments and private industries alike. Alarmingly, such collisions also exacerbate the issue of space trash further. At least 37 pieces of new space debris were created last year when a Chinese satellite crashed into a Russian military rocket.

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Discovering debris from space is both rare and surreal. Early in the morning July 9, people across Australia reported a sonic boom, bright lights in the sky, were able to see debris peeling off a falling object. Nearly a month later, two farmers in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales discovered debris littering their sheep paddocks. A third piece has also been located farther West