So, the garbage we left out in space is now getting in the way of future space garbage we plan on leaving in space. An old Russian satellite collided with an operationa American satellite, and they destroyed each other. Now there's several dozen, if not hundreds, of fragments floating around out there. This poses the possibilty of fragments flying into other satellites or the manned space station.

That's all well and good, and they should be concerned about tracking these fragments so they don't fly into the space station or destroy another satellite, but what happens when the fragments lose velocity? I don't think they're so far away from the earth that they are free and clear of its gravitational pull. If gravity is acting on them, they would lose momentum, slow down, and possibly plummet to the earth. I suppose the hope is that whatever it is will get burned up in the atmosphere, but if there are pieces that are large enough to maintain some mass even after re-entry, that could fall on someone and kill them. Or hit a plane. Or anything, really. Are they monitoring that possibility, too? Cause, i've read about their progress with shooting down moving things, and it's not so good.

Watch out. The sky is falling.

Some (or maybe all) of those satellites are powered by plutonium.