Metals in the Sky

Metals in the Sky

How does the space programme affect Earth’s atmosphere? Earlier this year, scientists presented the first evidence of potential harm… In the hit film Gravity (2013), astronauts played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney get stranded in orbit when their shuttle is shredded by extremely fast-moving metal fragments – the debris from a destroyed satellite. It’s dizzying, nail-biting stuff, but space debris is a real problem, not least because of it…