space junk seismic booms.

A new study shows how earthquake monitors can better track space junk by tuning into their sonic booms. Scientists reported Thursday that they collected seismic readings from the sonic booms generated when a discarded module from a Chinese crew capsule reentered in 2024. The data allowed them to place the object’s path nearly 20 miles farther south than radar had predicted from orbit. The study in the journal Science focused on one debris event. But the researchers already have used publicly available data from seismic networks to track a few dozen other reentries, including those from three failed SpaceX Starship test flights.