Who said outer space was empty?

[bru333]

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/InnerPlot.html

Last time I saw a plot of know objects it wasn't this crowded!

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

That looks suspiciously like the big green eyeball of God staring down on all of us. Actually, there's something like 28,000 pieces of man-made space debris whirring around our Earth at speeds faster than a speeding bullet. If I was an astronaut, that would be my biggest worry - getting perforated by some little metric bolt rocketing through me at 40 times the speed of sound. The NASA tracks all of it, too. But, aside from all the planets,suns, comets, asteroids, and space dust, there's basically 1 atom of hydrogen for every cubic foot of space, and that's pretty sparse.

[bru333]

But, aside from all the planets,suns, comets, asteroids, and space dust, there's basically 1 atom of hydrogen for every cubic foot of space, and that's pretty sparse.

I know. Kinda' deceptive looking at a 2D plot anyway, there is a lot of distance between those points. But it looks really impressive when you flatten out the 3D plot to 2D.

Actually, there's something like 28,000 pieces of man-made space debris whirring around our Earth at speeds faster than a speeding bullet. If I was an astronaut, that would be my biggest worry - getting perforated by some little metric bolt rocketing through me at 40 times the speed of sound.

Doesn't even have to be as large as a bolt to do damage at those speeds. One of the Space Shuttles came back with a chipped window. NASA said it was caused by a small flake of paint!