Image: Jason Webster, Flickr
It may sound futuristic, but researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and Tohoku University in Japan have found a new way of dealing with space junk - and it involves a new type of satellite powered by superheated gas. Space debris orbiting the earth has become a major problem in recent decades. If it collides with spacecraft it can cause serious damage, and create even more debris. Now a study has found has found a satellite could be sent up to seek out and shift this debris. It would work by shooting out a beam of hot 'plasma' - or ionised gas - from the opposite end of the satellite. This would allow the satellite to push the space junk down into a lower orbit so it eventually decays, or push it up to get it out of the way of other objects. "Our tests show you can push plasma out one end of a satellite to thrust it towards the junk, and then push it out the other end to send that junk in the right direction," Professor Rod Boswell from the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering said.
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