Research led by astronomers from the University of Warwick (University of Warwick) showed, that in this critically important area there is a large amount of small debris, which were previously completely invisible to tracking systems.
Critical height: The geostationary orbit is located at an altitude of approx 36 000 km above the equator. This is the highest traffic area for strategic communications equipment, TV, meteorology and military monitoring.
Enormous value at stake: Unlike low Earth orbit (LEO), where satellites like Starlink operate, single ones are placed in the GEO zone, but gigantic apparatuses. Their development costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and solar panels are often longer than 30 meters, making them an easy target.
The effect of "eternal garbage": Near Earth, the residual atmosphere gradually decelerates and burns the debris. There is no air at GEO altitude, so any debris generated stays there forever, accumulating every year.
Colossal kinetic energy: Even fragments the size of everything 5 centimeters (2 inches), which scientists discovered, move relative to each other at a speed of several kilometers per second. A collision with them will instantly destroy or disable the multi-ton machine.
Because GEO is very far away, small details there almost do not reflect light. The researchers used archival data from the Isaac Newton Telescope and applied a new digital analysis algorithm (blind stacking). This method made it possible to combine a series of images, amplify a weak signal and detect 25 previously missed tracks of space debris, 80% of which were not listed in any catalogs.
Source: https://www.space.com