What happens to old satellites and space debris in Earth's orbit?

There are space toys floating around Earth that don’t always come back home, they just keep going and going.

Imagine you're playing with your favorite toy car on a long hallway. You push it, and it zooms down the hall. But sometimes, instead of stopping at the end, it keeps going, maybe even bouncing off the walls or other toys in the way. That’s kind of what happens with old satellites and space debris, they’re like toy cars that keep moving around Earth.

Some space toys are still working and go on new adventures. But others just float there, sometimes bumping into each other or even crashing together. When two space toys crash, it can make more pieces fly off, like when a toy breaks apart after a big fall.

Sometimes, these space toys come back to Earth, they might burn up in the atmosphere like a falling star, or they might land on your backyard (though that’s pretty rare). But most of them just keep going around and around Earth, waiting for their next adventure.