According to Gravity , space rubble causes untold damage to space vehicle — and space agencies do indeed spend a lot of time testing materials they put into orbital cavity . This double shows what pass off when a sand grain - sized piece of aluminium oxide fall upon aluminum piece of paper at hypervelocity . Ouch .
At high speeds , even a small mass can cause untold damage . So investigator at the European Space Agency test materials , like this sheet aluminum , by firing samples towards them at extremely high speeds . satellite normally get bombard with outer space debris and meteoroids at upper of over 21,600 mph . Tests in ESA science lab mime those collisions by firing very small projectiles at hypervelocities , which are over 6,700 mph . For some linguistic context , the master fix in the image is 28×12 millimeters across . Eek . [ ESA ]
look-alike by ESA
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