There’s a lot of space junk orbiting our small planet, and some of it is about to fall to Earth on Friday.
The European Space Agency’s Space Debris operations reported in October that a suspected rocket body — Object WT1190F — will fall to Earth on Nov. 13.
The agency said that it poses little risk to people. In 50 years of rocket launches, there has never been an incident of any debris injuring a person.
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WT1190F was discovered in 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey. Though it’s not known exactly what the object is, by studying its density, experts at ESA’s NEO (near-Earth object) Coordination Centre have determined that it is far lighter than what a rocky object — like an asteroid — would be. They concluded that it is likely the discarded upper stage of a rocket.
Whatever it is isn’t very large, either, with estimates in size of just about two metres or so. It’s expected to fall into the ocean about 100 km off Sri Lanka’s southern coast around 11:50 a.m. local time (1:20 a.m. EST).
The International Astronomical Center (IAC) in Abu Dhabi is sponsoring an airborne observing event with the hope of learning more about falling space debris.
Though the reentry will happen during daylight, there is a chance that people may witness it falling (it would look like a bright meteor).
In April, a failed Russian Progress rocket that was destined for the International Space Station failed to reach proper altitude and fell back to Earth, with most of it believed to have burned up over the Pacific Ocean. In June, a scheduled deorbit of a satellite burned up over the Pacific as well.
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