Scientists from the University of Southampton say debris from an exploded US satellite could damage other spacecraft

Scientists from the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton say small pieces of the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite could potentially disable other craft or satellites.

The F13 satellite exploded in orbit in February and more than 100 pieces of space debris were detected using radar, but the European Space Agency and other satellite operators concluded the pieces would pose little risk to their missions.

However, scientists at the University of Southampton investigated the risks to a wide range of space missions which revealed that more than 50,000 small fragments larger than 1mm were created by the explosion and are travelling around the earth at enormous speeds.

PhD student Francesca Letizia who led the research under the supervision of Dr Camilla Colombo and Dr Hugh Lewis says that the fragments spread around the earth and formed a band, which could come into contact with spacecraft orbiting the planet.

To look at the risks to any spacecraft the scientists developed a collision probability map.

Dr Hugh Lewis, said: “Even though many of these objects will be no bigger than the ball in a ballpoint pen, they can disable a spacecraft in a collision because of their enormous speed.

“In the case of the DMSP-F13 explosion, our work has shown that the introduction of a new cloud of small-sized debris into orbit will have increased the risks for other spacecraft in the vicinity, even if the risk from the larger fragments has been discounted.”