People in England led an experiment. They cast a big net from a mini satellite. Their mission? Test ways to clean up space junk!

First the experimenters released an inflated structure—pretend space junk. Then they let the net go. The net wrapped around the structure. Success! The test demonstrated one possible way to clean up space junk in the future. Net the object, and then slow it down so the junk falls out of orbit and burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

Outer space is cluttered with thousands of old satellites, rocket and spacecraft parts. The floating junk could harm the International Space Station, the Hubble Telescope, or other space satellites. The experimenters had to use pretend space junk in their test. All space objects still belong to the countries that first sent them into space. Catching someone else’s space junk is against the law.

(AP Photo: A net is launched from a mini satellite to catch a test object.)