Wikipedia:POTD column/July 3, 2006

Hypervelocity is a very high velocity (over 3,000 m/s [10,000 ft/s]), such that the strength of materials is very small compared to inertial stresses. This is especially important in the case of space debris, which can be highly damaging to functioning satellites when impacting at orbital speeds. Shown here is the "energy flash" of a hypervelocity impact during a simulation of what happens when a piece of orbital debris hits a spacecraft in orbit.

Photo credit: NASA/Vanderdecken
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