"They ran into each other. Nothing has the right of way up there. We don't have an air traffic controller in space. There is no universal way of knowing what's coming in your direction." An unprecedented collision of two orbiting satellites yesterday highlights the increasing threat of space junk.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Feb 11, 2009 - 51 comments

In Chapter 3 of his 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Control of Nature, John Mcphee describes the catastrophe from debris flows following wild fires in the Los Angeles area in 1978. [more inside]
posted by strangeleftydoublethink on Oct 23, 2007 - 8 comments

God's Debris by Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) is now available for free in PDF form. It's a controversial book that presents a philosophically strange view of the universe. According to Adams, it splits readers between "the best book they've ever read" and "an insult to literature and a disservice to humanity".
posted by Plutor on Nov 18, 2005 - 44 comments

Rubber duckies wash ashore after 11 years Eleven years ago, a cargo-ship container holding 29,000 toy ducks was lost at sea in the North Pacific storm. They have since floated round the United States, through the Arctic and past Greenland (map). One American scientist is devoted to studying sea debris like these, including 80,000 pairs of Nike trainers, five million lost pieces of Lego and 34,000 hockey gloves, all lost when containers fell from transport ships.
posted by ao4047 on Aug 1, 2003 - 17 comments

It's kind of weird how people in East Texas seem to have to "pose" with the debris, like it's a dead deer or a fishing trophy...
posted by sparky on Feb 3, 2003 - 53 comments

Mystery of Plastic Tube Debris is Solved, But Wait ... There's Also Translucent Beads!
Marine debris experts were stumped as to the origin of bluish-gray plastic tubes ranging between 5-10 inches and of uneven width that kept washing up on shores. The website Beachcomber's Alert was no help at all. After the Honolulu Advertiser reported on the phenomenon, the pipes washed up on this Japanese website (English), along with a few other mystery objects. The leads came flooding in; mystery solved!
posted by rschram on Nov 1, 2001 - 9 comments

Having removed ten thousand tons of debri in the first four days, it will take close to a year to remove 1.25 million tons for the two 110-story buildings.
posted by HoldenCaulfield on Sep 16, 2001 - 21 comments