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Looking for space junk: USU project keeps an eye on the sky

GARDEN CITY, Rich County — Most people don't realize it, but right now at this very moment, thousands of pieces of junk are flying around right over their heads.

It's in orbit around the Earth — space junk — and it's a big threat to do serious damage and bodily harm.

Now, in the snowy mountains around Bear Lake, Utah State University has a new project that's designed to do something about the high-altitude, high-tech trash.

"The current estimate is about 700,000 of these objects," said former assistant professor Kohei Fujimoto, who has just left USU to work for a company that's developing systems to remove space junk from orbit.