Half-tonne piece of Soviet rocket due to crash back to earth | Science, climate & tech news

After 53 years in orbit, a piece of Soviet rocket has driven back into auto -size through the atmosphere.

“It is a half-tone thing that falls from the sky with a few hundred miles per hour. It will hurt when it hits her,” said an astronomer about Sky News.

Cosmos 482 was intended to land on Venus after being started in 1972 from the USSR indoor camp in today's Kazakhstan.

Instead, the upper level of the rocket failed, which was responsible for bringing it out of the orbit.

“The upper stage did not work on the right and only left the probe around the earth in orbit,” said Smithsonian Astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

Parts of the rocket entered the earth's atmosphere again in the 1980s, but a piece remained in the orbit, from which it was assumed that they were left behind by the spaceship.

“Years later I went to the data and went these debris […] There was much longer than the other stuff. It seems to be denser. It doesn't behave like debris, ”said McDowell.

“I found [strong enough] To survive the crushing power of the atmosphere of Venus. “

Now the heat -controlled capsule is located on a collision path with the earth, with the astronomer Marco Langbroek predicted that he will start on Saturday on Saturday.

“It's half a ton. It's about three feet through,” said McDowell.

“When it smashed into the atmosphere and goes with this enormous speed, the energy is converted into heat [and] You get this fireball. “

When it hits the earth, McDowell says, Cosmos 482 “will only go a few hundred miles per hour”.

“But it's still half a ton that falls from the sky with a few hundred miles per hour. It will hurt when it hits you,” he said.

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Scientists cannot predict where it will hit even though they have restricted it to 51 degrees north and 51 degrees to the south.

“If you are a penguin, you will probably be fine,” said Mr. McDowell. “But if you live somewhere from Chile to Scotland, you are in the zone.”

However, a large part of the surface is covered with the ocean, and the landing is the size of a car, so that it is likely to be hurt someone.

For Mr. McDowell, Cosmos 482 is only an illustration of a major problem.

“It is really overcrowded out there and we are becoming more and more dependent on satellites for our everyday life,” he said.

“I think time comes when we have to be really serious to clean space waste.”