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It’s estimated around 26,000 human-made objects orbit earth and the majority of this no longer works. There’s a risk this space debris could collide with functioning satellites that provide vital services – such as GPS and weather warnings.

To track and predict its behaviour, Prof Moriba Jah and his colleagues built AstriaGraph – a near real-time map of where each object is located in space. He explains that the system is monitoring around 200 ‘super-spreaders’ – large rocket bodies that have the potential to break into thousands of pieces.

Video by Jennifer Green.
Interview by Marnie Chesterton and Jennifer Whyntie.

(Image: AstriaGraph, Credit: Prof Moriba Jah / University of Texas)