Harvard Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell on the Space Junk Problem

Harvard Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell on the Space Junk Problem. More than 25,000 pieces of orbital debris—commonly known as space junk—currently race around the planet at 17,000 miles per hour. This “junk” includes everything from dead satellites to spent rocket stages and fragments leftover from past collisions. Some of the most troubling debris comes from anti-satellite weapon tests, in which governments have intentionally destroyed satellites, creating clouds of high-speed shrapnel. What happens when this space junk collides—and can we stop it from happening?

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell has worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for 37 years, where he has been a key scientist on NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (often described as the “X-ray cousin” of the Hubble Space Telescope). Launched in 1999, Chandra observes some of the hottest and most energetic regions of the universe, helping scientists study supernova remnants, galaxy clusters, and black holes in extraordinary detail.

In this video, McDowell explains the "space junk problem," and how the national and international laws currently applying to space do, and do not, make a difference.

https://www.harvardmagazine.com

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