Harry is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site 'Marine Madness,' which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts.
The sky is littered with metal pollution from bits of space junk that burn up as they reenter the atmosphere, a new study reveals. This unexpected level of contamination, which will likely rise sharply in the coming decades, could change our planet's atmosphere in ways we still don't fully understand, researchers warn.
The two most surprising elements were niobium and hafnium, which are both rare earth metals used to make technological components such as batteries. The researchers were also puzzled by high levels of aluminum, copper and lithium. The team suspects that the main source of the pollution is rocket boosters that are ejected by rockets shortly after they clear the upper atmosphere, then fall back to Earth.
Pollution from satellites will likely increase as more commercial satellites are launched into space. Of particular concern is the nearly 9,000 satellites that are currently in low-Earth orbit, which are all destined to eventually fall back to Earth, according to Orbiting Now.
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