Earth on course to have its own rings made of space junk, warns US professor

Giving an idea of how serious problem of space debris is turning out to become, University of Utah professor Jake Abbott has warned that Earth will soon have a ring around it similar to Saturn. In an interview with Salt Lake Tribune, Abbott said that "Earth is on course to have its own rings. y’ll just be me of junk."

It is estimated that re are over 170 million pieces of space junk floating in Earth's orbit and out of m, 23,000 pieces are big enough to cause severe damage to communication satellites and International Space Station (ISS).

Magnets can help solve junk problem

A professor of robotics, Abbott claims that magnets are something that could help in reducing menace of space junk. current amount of debris floating in space amounts to 7,500 metric tons, which is equal to mass of 11,000 elephants put toger, reported  Salt Lake Tribune. As per Abbott, se pieces are spinning at incredible speeds and using a robotic arm to remove any of m will break arm itself and d more junk in orbit. 

Explaining  concept of using magnets against space junk, Abbott said that his method would work even on junk pieces that are non-metallic. According to paper published by Abbott and his team in journal Nature, method of generating "eddy currents" would help collect both metal and non-metal pieces.

When non-magnetic space junk spins at a rapid pace, y generate electricity, which when brought near a spinning magnet produces eddy currents. magnetic field produced by se currents can be used to manipulate movement of debris and collect m. 

Tackling of space debris is a subject that deserves serious consideration as nearly 200-400 pieces of junk fall every year from space. Recently ISS was forced to change its orbit due to a cloud of broken Chinese satellite pieces, and lives of astronauts living aboard orbiting laboratory were also endangered. 

Image: NASA