Scientists Spot Space Junk With Lasers in Broad Daylight
As of 20 years ago, there were an estimated 250,000 pieces of space junk, each orbiting the Earth at 18,000 miles an hour. There must be 350,000 pieces now. And it amazes me that there have been no collisions between satellites and space junk. A loose screw orbiting at that speed would be enough to put a pretty good sized hole in the international Space Station.
It's actually worse than that as NASA estimates there are 500,000 pieces of debris larger than the size of a marble, which may seem harmless until one realizes the kinetic energy a marble has at those speeds!