It was around a few weeks back that the International Space Station (ISS) performed an unexpected maneuver to avoid collision with a small piece of space junk. And now, a new study report has suggested that Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS is majorly responsible for the rising number of manmade objects in the near-earth orbit.
ROSCOSMOS responsible for space junk
According to the new study report, Russia is responsible for more than 14,403 pieces of space junk. NASA, the United States space agency also has its share of garbage with more than 8,700 pieces of debris.
Most of the space junks in the earth's orbit are pieces of satellites, rockets, and other defunct devices. The new study report suggested that the number of space debris in the earth's orbit has doubled in the past two years.
China has 4,688 pieces of debris, and is followed by France which has 994. Growing space power India has 517 debris in the earth's orbit.
Rising Space Debris Could Destroy Satellites
A few days back, another study report had suggested that the rising number of space junks could destroy satellites, that are responsible for multifarious things on earth including navigation, communication, and weather services.
"With this survey, we've probed deeper than ever before, and still, the population appears to be climbing as our sensitivity limit is reached. While we're dealing with small number statistics here, it's unsurprising that we see many more small, faint objects than large, bright ones," said James Blake, a PhD student at the University of Warwick Department of Physics, and the author of the study.
Earlier, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) had claimed that Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system could negatively impact sky watching, and they made it clear that these satellites and defunct rockets are making the earth's orbit a crowded place. Some other experts believe that increased space debris could trap humans on the earth.
