Q. Will Earth end up with a Saturnlike ring someday because of all of our space junk? Or is there one already?

A. There is a big difference in materials and scale between the visible rings of Saturn and the smattering of Earthborn items that have ended up in orbit, according to NASA. Some of the material that humans have sent into space can be visualized as a ring at a specific location, called the geostationary orbit. This is where weather and communications satellites orbit Earth at the same rate as the planet turns on its axis, so they always stay above a single spot on the surface. When these satellites have outlived their usefulness, they will be moved to another orbit.

Most of the rest of what is left in space is widely scattered in different orbits. Space scientists keep track of the larger debris so they can maneuver to avoid collisions with useful spacecraft like the International Space Station and Earth-observation satellites. There is not likely to be enough space junk to form visible rings. Material in lower orbits often falls back to Earth after several years, though things in higher orbit may stay there for a century or more.