Distribution of space debris in orbit around Earth

This animation shows different types of space debris objects and different debris sizes in orbit around Earth. For debris objects bigger than 10 cm the data come from the US Space Surveillance Catalogue. The information about debris objects smaller than 10 cm is based on a statistical model by ESA. Number of space debris objects in orbit: Bigger than 1m: 5 400 objects Bigger than 10 cm: 34 000 objects (among them are only 2 000 active satellites) Bigger than 1cm: 900 000 objects Bigger than 1mm: 130 000 000 objects Colour code: Red: satellites (functional or dysfunctional) Yellow: rocket bodies Green: mission related objects (covers, caps, adapters, etc.) Blue: fragments More information: ★ Subscribe: and click twice on the bell button to receive our notifications. Check out our full video catalog: Follow ESA on Twitter: On Facebook: On Instagram: On Flickr: ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out to get up to speed on everything space related. Copyright information about our videos is available here: #ESA #SpaceDebirs #CleanSpace