Scientists tracked falling space junk by listening for the sonic boom it made as it tore through the atmosphere. It could be a way to better monitor objects from space as the number of satellites skyrockets.

The number of satellites has grown from 3,000 just five years ago to more than 14,000 today, mostly driven by SpaceX’s Starlink mega constellation which makes up 65% of all satellites. One or two satellites re-enter our atmopshere EVERY DAY, but it’s hard to track where these things are falling. Sonic booms could be an answer – scientists used them to track a piece of falling Chinese space debris two years ago, and say we could use the technique to monitor other falling objects in the future across the globe.