Scientists have issued a stark warning to humanity when it comes to the Kessler syndrome that could send humanity back to the metaphorical Dark Ages if it comes true.
Modern society is full of technical wonders that we don't even realise make everything tick along nicely.
From using GPS to make planes run like clockwork to mapping weather to ensure global food production keeps humanity fed, there are lots of nuanced ways modern life works without even realising.
But it could all be at major risk of grinding to a halt if the Kessler syndrome comes true. And now, a fresh warning has been issued over the danger it poses.
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Kessler syndrome definition
First theorised back in 1978, the Kessler syndrome was thought up by NASA scientists Donald Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais.
Their hypothesis was that if humanity keeps flooding the area of space around Earth - known as low Earth orbit (LEO) - with more and more satellites and space junk, it'll soon get crowded to a point where things could get really bad for people.
Kessler and Cour-Palais said that if we keep sending stuff in to space to orbit around the planet, it will reach a saturation point where collisions begin and cannot be stopped.
NASA says: "Spent rockets, satellites and other space trash have accumulated in orbit increasing the likelihood of collision with other debris.
"Unfortunately, collisions create more debris creating a runaway chain reaction of collisions and more debris known as the Kessler Syndrome after the man who first proposed the issue, Donald Kessler."
New Kessler syndrome warning
Dan Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, issued a fresh warning over the Kessler syndrome at a 2024 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC.
As of 2024, there are more than 10,000 active satellites orbiting the planet, with around 6,800 of them belonging to Elon Musk and his Starlink broadband network.
And it could get a lot more crowded, with more than 40,000 satellites wanted as part of Musk's Starlink network.
On top of the 10,000 current satellites, there are roughly 40,500 pieces of debris more than 10 centimetres in length orbiting the Earth, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
With all this in mind, Baker told the December meeting: "We have to get serious about this and recognise that, unless we do something, we are in imminent danger of making a whole part of our Earth environment unusable."
Space plasma physicist David Malaspina, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, added: "If the Kessler syndrome starts to happen and we start to see a sort of cascade of collisions, we're going to see it in the smallest grains first. These are our canary in the coal mine."
What will happen if the Kessler syndrome comes true?
If a chain reaction of collisions happens around Earth involving satellites, life on the planet could change quickly.
Satellites would be taken out and a result humanity would suffer huge internet and Wi-Fi outages. Phone networks would go down with no satellites in the sky to ping calls from. It would even mean the potential end of TV and GPS.
If that happened, weather satellites would be taken out, impacting our ability to track its impact on a number of industries such as food production and fishing as well as predict natural disasters and save lives.
The problem in such a situation is that there is nothing to slow down the chain reaction around the planet, making it incredibly hard to launch new satellites without them also being taken out.
Stopping the Kessler syndrome
Right now, there are around 1,000 collision warnings every day when it comes to objects in low orbit of Earth, according to Thomas Berger, director of University of Colorado's Space Weather Technology Research and Education Center.
The problem, Berger says, is that space is lawless when it comes to satellite and sending more up there.
Attention has turned to ways of recycling what is already in space, with debris potentially being reused for new projects. Some have looked at burning up items in Earth's atmosphere, but this is one that carries caution, with such acts depleting the ozone layer.
Clearly, according to the experts, we have to act fast. And those with the money and political power to do so have that responsibility firmly on their shoulders.
Topics: Environment, NASA, Phones, Science, Space, Technology, World News, Elon Musk
Tom Earnshaw