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This is what happens when a tiny piece of flying space debris hits the ISS

This is what happens when a tiny piece of flying space debris hits the ISS

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As it tumbles through space, the International Space Station is often hit with orbital junk, usually tiny fragments from satellites and lost equipment. Recently, astronaut Tim Peake shared a photo (above) from inside the ISS's Cupola module documenting what kind of damage this debris can do to the satellite. The European Space Agency says the piece of debris that caused this particular chip was "possibly a paint flake or small metal fragment no bigger than a few thousandths of a millimeter across."

The threat of a paint flake

It's pretty unnerving that something so small could cause such a significant crack, but the ISS is orbiting Earth at 17,150 miles per hour. The Cupola's massive 80 cm windows are made of fused silica and borosilicate glass that can help it withstand the force of this space junk — to an extent. An impact like the one above poses no real threat to the ISS, according to the ESA, but debris up to 1 cm could cause critical damage while anything larger than 10 cm could "shatter a satellite or spacecraft into pieces."

"I am often asked if the International Space Station is hit by space debris," Peake said in a statement. "Yes — this is the chip in one of our Cupola windows, glad it is quadruple glazed!"

NASA has previously conducted special maneuvers to avoid larger, more dangerous debris. In 2014, flight controllers were able to raise the ISS's altitude by half a mile in order to avoid an old part of a European rocket barreling down in its orbital path.


A day in the life aboard the ISS