You’ve heard about the thousands of satellites zooming around Earth, but did you know our planet is surrounded by all kinds of odd, fascinating, and sometimes totally unintentional objects? Next time you look up at the night sky, remember: it’s not just satellites and stars—it’s wrenches, Teslas, and tiny droplets of Soviet coolant, all taking their lap around planet Earth. As we continue to explore and utilize space, understanding and managing this orbital neighborhood becomes increasingly important. From tools lost during spacewalks to entire cars, here are 27 wild things orbiting Earth that aren’t your average communication satellite.
#1: Defunct Satellites
They once beamed TV or monitored weather, but now they’re just expensive space junk doing laps around Earth. These are satellites that have ceased functioning, over time contributing to the growing concern of space debris, posing collision risks to active satellites and spacecraft .
