Distribution of space debris in orbit around Earth

This animation shows different types of space debris objects and different debris sizes in orbit around Earth.
For debris objects bigger than 10 cm the data come from the US Space Surveillance Catalogue.

The information about debris objects smaller than 10 cm is based on a statistical model by ESA.

Number of space debris objects in orbit:
> 1m: 5 400 objects
> 10 cm: 34 000 objects (among them are only 2 000 active satellites)
> 1cm: 900 000 objects
> 1mm: 130 000 000 objects

Colour code:
Red: satellites (functional or dysfunctional)
Yellow: rocket bodies
Green: mission related objects (covers, caps, adapters, etc.)
Blue: fragments

More information: www.esa.int/debris