China’s destruction of a satellite will have left debris in space that could endanger other orbiting instruments, but the extent of the hazard that it poses will depend on the circumstances of the hit.

The weather satellite is thought to have been blown apart using a solid kinetic projectile rather than an explosive — a “bullet” rather than a “bomb” — and this will have limited the size of the cloud of “space junk” that it created.

Such debris will still be much more dangerous to other satellites in the same orbit than the obsolete satellite itself would have been, because there will now be many smaller hazardous objects scattered over a larger area, following more unpredictable paths.

Peter Zimmerman, Professor of Science and Security at King’s College London, said: “If it went forward in orbit it is a serious concern, but if it went back it would be a bit less of a concern.

“If it was accelerated, it will mean the debris is around a long time, but if it decelerated that may cause it to de-orbit and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Martin Barstow, of the University of Leicester, said: “This is certainly going to add to space junk. What this means is that the footprint of this satellite will have increased. Its particular altitude will have been chosen for a reason, and other operators will have to take care to avoid this.”

Andrew Coates, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, said: “It is estimated that there will be hundreds of largeish pieces, and millions of small pieces.

“Space is big, but something like this is going to add to the hazards of the environment, even if it’s highly unlikely to cause problems for something like the International Space Station.”

Hitting a satellite in orbit is much simpler than hitting a moving ballistic missile because its orbital path is well known in advance.

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