(CNN) – There is a possibility that two inactive satellites currently in low Earth orbit collide on Wednesday over the US, according to the space debris tracking service Leolabs.
If the two satellites collide with each other, the collision will result in thousands of pieces of small space debris that would pose a massive risk to other satellites in space.
LeoLabs tweeted Monday that astronomers are monitoring the approach of two-decade-old satellites, which will be found at a distance of 13 to 87 meters between them at 6:39 p.m. ITS T. There is a 1 in 1,000 probability that the two collide.
While 1 in 1,000 seems very unlikely, that probability poses an extremely high risk in the space industry. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told CNN that the likelihood of satellites colliding is “extremely alarming.”
The large size of the combined satellites increases the possibility of a collision, according to LeoLabs.