The International Space Station is a relatively large moving target floating around above the Earth. Not only can it be hit by man-made space junk, but there’s also a lot of space rock out there traveling at hull-damaging speeds.
Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut currently aboard the ISS has just been reminded of this fact when he looked out the window and saw a “bullet hole” in the station’s solar array. According to Hadfield’sTwitter account, he believes a “small stone from the universe” came into contact with the solar panel and smashed right through it leaving the bullet-sized hole you can see above.
Hadfield also commented that he’s glad the object missed the hull, and you can understand why. Such objects can be traveling in excess of 25,000 mph and would certainly cause some damage through a direct hit. However, a hull breach is very unlikely due to the way the hull is constructed from multiple layers. At best the astronauts inside would have their attention grabbed by the sound such an impact could make.
It’s unclear at the moment what the damage will do to the ISS’s energy generating capabilities. Is it a case the whole panel has stopped working, or just a small area around the hole? We’ll have to wait and see what NASA says after they’ve inevitably carried out some tests and checked the data.
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