Content about space debris

When the New Horizons spacecraft met up with Pluto last month, astronomers christened one of the features Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), a nod to the Russian satellite Sputnik 1. Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957, kicking off the space age in the process.

(Read our coverage of the New Horizons Pluto flyby here.)