Space is getting crowded. 🚀 More than 36,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm are currently tracked in Earth’s orbit, and there are millions of smaller fragments racing around at speeds up to 28,000 km/h. Even something as tiny as a paint fleck can damage satellites or the ISS. That’s why researchers at Tohoku University in Japan are developing a new way to clean up: a bidirectional plasma ejection electrodeless plasma thruster. ⚡ Here’s how it works: • Instead of grabbing debris, a satellite equipped with this thruster ejects two streams of plasma simultaneously. • This allows the satellite to “push” or “pull” debris without needing to physically touch it. • Once nudged, debris falls back toward Earth, where it burns up safely in the atmosphere. Why it matters: • Collisions in orbit can create even more debris (the Kessler syndrome). • Debris threatens everything from weather satellites 🌦️ to GPS navigation 📡 to space stations 🛰️. • Scalable tech like this could be cruc...