How Do You Fight Space Junk? With Lasers, Of Course!
Telescope operators figured out years ago how to make the stars stop twinkling. Now, a team of Australian scientists wants to use the same technology to track space junk and blast it out of space. The problem is Earth’s atmosphere: It’s uneven and distorts light passing from space to Earth, and Earth to space. That’s a problem, because the nice twinkly effect Earth’s atmosphere gives stars makes it difficult for ground-based telescopes to accurately observe the heavens. It’s also a problem for efforts to lower the risk of space junk, which threatens satellites and crewed spaceflight, as Live Science previously … Read more
