We’re likely less than two weeks from a former Soviet Union spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, but there’s a problem: nobody knows where it’s going to land – and it looks like it’s going to land, rather than burning up in the atmosphere.
Known as Kosmos 482, it’s part of a Venus lander that was sent into orbit in 1972 and has been stuck there ever since. The spacecraft’s mission to Venus failed, unlike the sister mission, Venera 8, which successfully
had a Venus landing in July 1972
, according to the Washington Post.
(MORE:
Keep an Eye on These Major Skywatching Events in May
)
What To Know:
–
Where could it land?
Experts informed the Post that at present, a crash landing seems probable and could occur anytime within the zone ranging from 52 degrees north to 52 degrees south of the equator. This area covers virtually every place from Quebec down to Patagonia, as noted by the Post.
–
At what time could the re-entry happen?
Marco Langbroek from SatTrackCam Leiden in the Netherlands, who initially identified that the satellite was descending towards Earth, utilized orbital information to determine that
The most probable date for re-entry is approximately May 10.
However, according to his latest predictions, it might return to Earth anytime from May 8 to May 12.
–
How large is the spacecraft?
Kosmos 482
weighs about 1,100 pounds
, according to NASA, and it’s nearly the size of a small car. If it remains intact and makes contact with the Earth’s surface, it could create an impact similar to that of a small asteroid.
What They’re Saying:
-“It will appear as a brilliant fireball when it reenters the atmosphere,” said David Williams, who leads NASA’s Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, to the Washington Post.
“As this spacecraft was engineered to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere, it might successfully endure re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and land undamaged. While the chances of survival are reasonably good, they aren’t absolute.” – Langbroek,
speaking with Live Science
“The spacecraft is bulky yet non-reactive and contains no nuclear substances. While not particularly alarming, you’d prefer it didn’t collide with you.” — Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, commented this way.
April blog post
– “Following its failed launch, Kosmos 482 broke into two pieces consisting of the main body and the lander. The former re-entered Earth’s atmosphere nine years after launch on May 5, 1981, while the descent craft remained trapped inside a slowly decaying orbit that has persisted for more than 50 years.” –
Space.com