What is the estimated total mass of space junk currently orbiting Earth?
Answer
Over 6,600 tons
While the sheer count of tracked objects reaches into the tens of thousands, the total mass provides a necessary complementary perspective on the orbital pollution problem. Analyses of the tracked population and estimations of smaller, untracked materials converge on a figure indicating that the collective mass of space junk floating above Earth exceeds 6,600 tons. It is important to note that this total mass is unevenly distributed; the vast majority of this weight is concentrated within a relatively small number of very large, inert objects, such as old rocket stages and sizable defunct satellites, rather than the countless tiny fragments.
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