With the abnormal out-of-character seasons we've been seeing within the past few years, as well as the UN's recent urgent call to climate action, you'd think we'd have learned our lesson about the dangers of pollution well enough on our own planet. If so, think again: an astronomer at the University College London has created a mesmerizing minute-long video that illustrates the 60-year history of Earthlings chucking junk into outer space. 

Using data derived from the scientific resource space-track.org, scientist Stuart Grey created the animated short from an original online interactive project hosted on Royal Institution of Great Britain's website, which captures the impact our space trash has had on a second-to-year ratio, beginning with the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik in 1957, and tracking through decades of pile-up to the present day.

As the original video explains it, the typical space detritus is usually comprised of castoffs from a Chinese test missile.

Of course, due to the Earth's gravitational pull, the man-made detritus remains in a stationary whorl directly above our heads. In the video, the swarm of space debris comes off as equally breathtaking as it is frightening.

"If objects are high enough above the Earth's atmosphere, they could keep orbiting for centuries," cautions Grey's original project.

Check out the 60-year history of space junk in less than 60 seconds in the video clip below.

Via: Gizmodo