Space Debris Telescope in Tenerife

Watching and listing space junk doesn't sound all that glamourous as space jobs go, but Tenerife's role is an increasingly important one. If it wasn't enough that we're filling the planet with our leftovers, it appears we've been doing much the same in space for the last 50 years.

Debris as small as 0.3 mm can cause damage, but there are bits of old spacecraft and rocket bodies floating around up there and the fastest debris, at 50,000 kph, are travelling about 17 times faster than a machine gun bullet.

Click here to see full text and images »

European Space Agency via Red Nova