The Washington Post has created a series of visualizations illustrating the location and prevalence of space junk, which are discarded satellites, rocket parts, and debris. One visualization shows the number of working satellites and space junk located 100 miles to 1,250 miles from the Earth’s surface. Satellites appear as blue dots and space junk appears as pink dots. According to the visualization, 90 percent of working satellites and most of the junk in space exist in this region, increasing the risk that space junk will collide with a working satellite.
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Morgan Stevens
Morgan Stevens is a Research Assistant at the Center for Data Innovation. She holds a J.D. from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and a B.A. in Economics and Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
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