Soon to return to earth, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite!

So far, the planet we live on (Earth, unless you’re reading this from Mars or something) has successfully avoided all the space junk littering its upper atmosphere.  There are hundreds of satellites and whatnot floating around over our heads, and thus far nothing major has crashed into earth.  Well, nothing man-made anyway; we still get hit by meteors and are at risk for the occasional asteroid impact.  So far, so good.  However, a six-ton satellite is expected to hit the Earth today, and NASA isn’t sure where it’ll land.

The six-ton piece of debris, formerly known as NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (or UARS), won’t make earth in one piece.  Fortunately for whoever might be under it.  The satellite is expected to mostly burn up, but some 26 pieces weighing at 1200 pounds is expected to actually make landfall.  Don’t worry, it’s not going to hit North America, and the odds of it landing on someone are 1 in 3200 (the odds of it landing on you personally are 1 in 21 trillion).

As for the UARS, it is one of 22,000 pieces of space junk floating around uselessly over our heads right at this moment.  As these things age, expect more rockets, satellites, and whatnot to make it back to earth.

Tags: satellite to crash to earth, satellite to enter earth’s orbit on Friday, satellite falling out of the sky, NASA, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite to hit earth today, space junk, six ton satellite to enter earth’s atmosphere, six ton satellite to hit earth, UARS

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