Hasta La Gadget!

The Department of Defense has issued a warning in its Interim Space Posture Review that the amount of space junk orbiting the earth has “reached a critical tipping point,” one that could result in a series of chain-reaction collisions that “brings everyday life on Earth to a grinding halt,” according to Popular Science.

That may be overstating the case slightly, but it’s still an important issue. Here’s the situation: there are about 1,100 satellites orbiting the earth right now. Contrast that to about 370,000 pieces of space junk orbiting the earth, ranging from lost nuts and bolts from spacewalks, to entire decommissioned satellites–all speeding around at about 4.8 miles per second, the report said.

The Pentagon warned that a collision–numerically probable at some point–could generate thousands of pieces of additional junk, which could then cause additional crashes, and so on. This has actually happened a few times in the past, notably with a defunct Russian satellite in 2009 and an errant Chinese missile back in 2007.

A collision could cripple communications, along with civilian and military GPS systems, and the resulting debris clouds could seriously inhibit future satellite deployments, according to the article. (Image credit: NASA)