Space Debris from 1957 - 2015

Almost 20,000 pieces of space debris are currently orbiting the Earth. This visualisation, shows how the amount increased from 1957 to our days…

Since Sputnik 1, we’ve been littering the space around our planet with debris. This interactive visualisation tells the story of how it has accumulated.

The video created by Dr Stuart Grey, lecturer at University College London and part of the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory, using data on the precise location of each piece of junk (from https://www.space-track.org ).

To see the full story, visit the Royal Institution advent calendar at: http://rigb.org/christmas-lectures/ho…