Failed Soviet Venus Lander Kosmos 482 accidents on earth after 53 years in orbit

Astronomer Gianluca Masi from the virtual telescopic project caught this picture of Kosmos 482 during one of his last organs when it went over Rome, Italy on May 10, 2025. (Photo credit: Gianluca Massi/The Virtual Telescopic Project))

A failed Soviet Venus -Lander -Long -Space -odyssey has ended.

The cosmos 482 probe plunged against the earth today (May 10) after it has been circulating our planet for more than five decades. According to the Russia's Roscosmos, the re -entry took place at 2:24 a.m. ET (0624 GMT or 9:24 a.m. Moscow) via the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia. Kosmos 482 seems to have fallen harmlessly into the sea.

Astronomer Gianluca Masi from the Virtual Telescope project caught a picture of Kosmos 482 during one of his last orbit, when it went through Rome, Italy, shortly before sunrise on May 10th. In the photo, the probe is “visible as a trail, which is pointed out from the top to the lower right corner,” wrote Masi on his website. “The picture is the sum of four pictures, so the trace of Cosmos 482 looks off.”

The earth is not the planet on which cosmos should land 482. The spaceship was part of the Venera program of the Soviet Union, which sent a fleet of probes to Venus in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.

Kosmos 482 started in 1972 towards the earth, but a problem with his rocket was a problem with its rocket in an elliptical orbit around the earth. Over the next 53 years, the atmospheric drag slowly but surely pulled down the probe, which led to today's dramatic resolution.

Most large space junk pieces -for example exploiting satellites and rocket bodies -break down onto the earth during their fiery trips and create artificial meteor showers. It is possible that Kosmos 482 made it in one piece today, as it should survive a high -speed trip through Venus' thick atmosphere.

The cosmos 482 is about 1 meter far from 1.3 feet and weighs about £ 1,190 (495 kilograms). If it did not break apart during the re -entry, it probably hit the surface of the earth about 240 km / h (240 km / h), as the Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek emerges.

In this scenario “the kinetic energy is similar in the effects of a 40-55 cm [16 to 22 inches] Large (after ablation) meteorite fragment, ”wrote Langbroek recently in a blog post.

A black and white picture of a gross cylindrical gray mass on a black background

Telescopic images of the Soviet Cosmos 482 Venus parentage craft in the earth orbit, recorded by the satellite tracker Ralf Vandeberg from the Netherlands, indicate that the self -parachute of the probe may no longer be able to be. (Photo credit: Ralf Vandeberg)

The autumn of the cosmos 482 directs the growth problem of our planet. On average, three large pieces of debris plunge back to earth every day – and this number will only increase.

According to the European Space Authority (ESA), the Earth Railway houses around 14,240 satellites, 11,400 of which are active. Most of the operational craft belongs to the Starlink -Breitband -Megakonstellation of SpaceX, which currently consists of around 7,200 satellites but is constantly growing.

Other megaconal positions are also under construction. For example, Amazon has just started the first large batch of spaceships for his Kuiper Broadband Network project, which finally houses 3,200 satellites when everything goes according to plan. And rockets have lured satellites for two different Chinese mega -making positions, each of which is supposed to accommodate at least 13,000 spaceships.

“With increasing spatial traffic, we expect that the re -entry frequencies will continue to increase in the future,” ESA officer wrote in a blog post by Kosmos 482.

The risk of injuries or damage to property due to each individual re -entry is very small, since many debris in the air and the parts that normally do not fall in the ocean or inaccurate. But when the re -entry volume increases, the likelihood of a destructive effect also has.

There are also other potential consequences. For example, researchers attract attention to the pollution, which was created by re -entry of satellites that damage the earth's ozone layer and also influence the climate of our planet.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply