This chilling image, which I saw first at Core 77, is a visualization of space-junk by the European Space Agency.
The images (there’s a series) show all the satellites and human-made debris now orbiting space as a result of 51 years of launching devices since Sputnik – a total of 6,000 rocketloads. If you think this looks bad, imagine what a similar image would look like if it visualized all the matter used in the production of cars during the past 100 years or so – at roughly one thousand tonnes per vehicle.
