page_title: Kessler Syndrome
hierarchical_section_title: Kessler Syndrome
caption_attribution_description: English: Image made from models used to track debris in Earth orbit. Of the approximately 19,000 man-made objects larger than 10 centimetres in Earth orbit as of July 2009, most orbit close to the Earth.
context_page_description: Kessler Syndrome is a thought-up situation made by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in which the amount of space debris in orbit is large enough to cause space collisions to happen often. This would make space mostly unusable for years if it happened at an extreme level.
  There is a satellite in orbit that is large and inactive, making it count as space debris, but it is in an orbit with a large amount of space debris. Two known objects get within 200m of it every year. This could cause a lot of space debris, inducing a domino effect with more collisions.
context_section_description: Kessler Syndrome (or an ablation cascade) is a thought-up situation made by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in which the amount of space debris in orbit is large enough to cause space collisions to happen often. This would make space mostly unusable for years if it happened at an extreme level.
  There is a satellite in orbit that is large and inactive, making it count as space debris, but it is in an orbit with a large amount of space debris. Two known objects get within 200m of it every year. This could cause a lot of space debris, inducing a domino effect with more collisions.
caption: Space Debris in Low Earth Orbit.
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