Saturday, September 24, 2011

Satellite hits Earth, location unknown

A decommissioned Nasa satellite, the biggest piece of US space junk to fall in 30 years, has crash-landed but the precise location is not yet known, the US space agency said early Saturday.

Nasa has repeatedly said there is only a "very remote" risk to the public from the 26
fragments of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) which were expected to survive the fiery re-entry into the atmosphere.



The satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23pm Friday and 1:09am Saturday (0323-0509 GMT Saturday), but the precise re-entry time and location "are not yet known with certainty," NASA said.

"The satellite was passing eastward over Canada and Africa as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans during that period," it said in its latest update.

On its Twitter feed, Nasa said, "If debris fell on land (and that's still a BIG if), Canada is most likely area."

The two dozen parts of the UARS that may have survived re-entry could weigh anything from two to 350 pounds (1-158 kilograms), the space agency said, and the debris field is expected to span 500 miles (800 kilometers).

More @ http://www.hindustantimes.com/Satellite-hits-Earth-location-unknown/H1-Article1-749555.aspx

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