Several hundred thousand pieces of waste, commonly known as space junk, litter low-Earth orbit, potentially causing hazardous conditions for rockets and satellites. A group of scientists would like to shoot this junk from the ground with high-powered laser pulses.

The heat from the laser blasts would vaporize a minuscule part of a piece of space junk, resulting in a plasma jet that could slow the object down enough to bring it out of Earth orbit.

“You’re essentially creating a laser-powered rocket, using the object to be its own fuel,” said engineer Claude Phipps of the company Photonic...