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Space
Space
Science
Tereza Pultarova

'Crash Clock' reveals how soon satellite collisions would occur after a severe solar storm — and it's pretty scary

Artist's illustration of space junk orbiting Earth.

How long would it take for satellites to begin to collide with space junk and each other if they were to suddenly lose their ability to avoid each other?

A new study finds that, with the immense quantity of satellites that hurtle in Earth's orbit today, the first smashup would occur in less than three days, potentially triggering a dangerous collision cascade that could quickly make space around the planet unusable.

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