We have a huge space junk problem and it is only going to get worse as more and more companies and governments launch satellites, probes, and even tourists into space.
Much of the stuff we send to space gets sucked back into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up, but we don't know how to do something about it.
Jake Abbott, a professor at the University of Utah, predicts that the Earth could soon start looking like a giant planet.
He told The Salt Lake Tribune that Earth is on course to have its own rings. They will be made of junk.
A tractor beam.
The European Space Agency says there are 170 million pieces of space debris larger than a millimeter in size. About 670,000 of them are larger than half an inch.
Our planet is busy because of companies like SpaceX launching their own satellites. We are also at a higher risk of a knock-on collision event that could result in even more space junk.
Scientists are trying to figure out how to fix the problem. Abbott thinks that magnets could be used to swoop up space junk.
Abbot wrote an article in the journal Nature about how a robotic arm could be spun up to create eddies, which could be used to control space junk.
The researcher told The Salt Lake Tribune that they had created the first tractor beam. It is just a question of engineering. Building and launching something.
Earth may soon have its own rings because of space pollution. The Salt Lake Tribune asked if the Utah team had found a solution in magnets.
Russia says it is fine that it dumped a satellite into the space.
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