Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre finds Sun accelerates debris altitude loss
Technology
Turns out the sun is helping tidy up our space mess!
Researchers at India's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre tracked 17 pieces of space debris for 34 years and found that when the sun gets extra active (think lots of sunspots), space junk drops in altitude much faster.
VSSC finds solar activity increases drag
The team looked at three full solar cycles (1986-2024) and saw a clear pattern: more solar activity means more drag on debris, pulling it down toward Earth.