space junk

基本解释

Red-faced astronomers only discovered it a few days before and until then they thought it was a piece of space junk.
这块红色的物体被发现以及有几天的时间了，在最后被证实其实只是一块太空垃圾。
For the past several decades, Earth has been growing a ring of its own—made of defunct satellites, old rocket boosters, and other “space junk.
在过去几十年里，地球一直在种植自己的环——由失效的卫星、陈旧的火箭推进器以及其它“太空垃圾”构成。
NASA space junk scientists believe that all – or nearly all – of the parts of their 20-year-old dead satellite safely plunged into the Pacific Ocean, likely missing land.
NASA太空垃圾科学家相信，他们已服役20年的失效卫星所有或几乎所有的零部件可能象失踪的土地一样已安全地沉入大平洋。

They include nets,giant collecting arms and powerful laser beams that would move or destroy space junk.
Dr.Craig Smith,the chief executive of Electro Optic Systems, says laser beams fired from the ground could protect astronauts and satellites by targeting space junk that travels at potentially devastating speeds.
"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometers per hour and so even a 1mm piece of space junk can destroy or damage a satellite because it all comes from either dead satellites, satellites which have broken up, satellites which had fuel left in them and exploded."

Some fly by night piece of space junk that doesn't even have a name?
NPR: A Down-to-Earth View of the Planet Debate

unwanted objects or material left in space by human activity, such as pieces of old or destroyed equipment

objects such as artificial satellites, material discarded from space stations, etc that remain in space after use