Over the years–decades now–that we’ve been out in space, we’ve left a lot of random bits and pieces and detritus floating in orbit.

Today, we’ve got a picture of the earth, WITH the junk in the shot.

The pic comes to us by way of the European Space Agency, and gives you a visual representation of the sheer amount of space junk floating around out there.  Screws, bolts, tools, bits of satellites both past and present–there’s a spectacular amount of steel and iron floating around out there.  Normally, a good amount of this stuff will fall into the atmosphere and burn up on contact as soon as its orbit degrades sufficiently to let friction take hold.

But still, this particular picture from space is downright awesome, and gives you an interesting look at a strange problem with the world’s space projects–junk in space.

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4. Pictures From Space–The Horsehead Nebula
5. Pictures From Space: Hurricane Jimena