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File:Objects and debris in LEO by height white.png

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Summary

Description
English: Low Earth Orbit's debris density, and notable active satellites by height. Note the peaks of space debris at various heights, crowding, and future mega constellation projects.

Notable debris clouds and spacecraft in LEO: 2,000km: debris naturally decaying in 50,000 years 2,000km: Samsung Korea constellation (4,700 planned satellites) 1,500-1,800km: Few satellites due to inner Van Allen belt risk to spacecraft 1,500km: Gonets Russian communications satellites (12 active) 1,400km: unknown debris cloud 1,400km: Astrome Tech India constellation (600 planned satellites) 1,340km: Jason-3 Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT-NASA) 1,300km: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean topography measurement sat (S6MF) 1,200km: OneWeb constellation of 542 active satellites (648 planned) 500-1154km: GuoWang China constellation (12,992 planned satellites) 1,050km: Hisaki ultraviolet astronomy satellite 1,000km: debris naturally decaying in 1,000 years 865km: 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test 850km: debris naturally decaying in 200 years 817km: MetOp Meteorological Operational satellite (3 sats) 790km: 2009 Iridium-Kosmos collission (~2000 trackable objects) 710km: Terra Earth Observing System 670km: 1996 Cerise French satellite collision with debris from Ariane 600km: debris naturally decaying in 20 years 590-630km: Project Kuiper mecgaonstellation (3,236 planned satellites) 590km: Hubble Space Telescope 340-615km: Starlink constellation of 3,905 active sats (30,000 planned) 530km: Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope 510km: Lynk constellation (5,000 planned satellites) 490km: WISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer 480km: 2021 Russia anti-satellite missile test (~1500 trackable objects) 340-450km: Tiangong space station 330-430km: International Space Station 390km: former Mir Space Station 350km: Sat Revolution Poland constellation (1,024 planned satellites) 250km: debris below naturally decaying in weeks 215km: Sputnik 1 perigee (first satellite in orbit 1957-1958) 150km: debris below naturally decaying in hours 95km: solar arrays break-off on reentry 80km: average spacecraft break up 27-52km: high altitude balloons 15-40km: ozone layer

10km: aircraft
Date
Source Own work
Author Pablo Carlos Budassi
Other versions

Image created by Pablo Carlos Budassi for Wikimedia Commons. Please mention the original author's name on each image copy you use.

Data credit: 2021 NASA Space Debris Presentation to STSC.

This image is part of a complete infographic of the key space sustainability issues for the 2020's decade: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_sustainability_overview.png

More info at the artist's website: https://www.pablocarlosbudassi.com/2021/02/space-sustainability.html

Suggestions for making this scheme more accurate and descriptions in other languages are welcome. Please get in touch for any comments or suggestions to improve the accuracy of the diagram: pablocarlosbudassi@gmail.com

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Captions

Low Earth Orbit's debris density, and notable active satellites by height.

9 August 2023

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