Tiangong-1 Space Station To Hit Earth Sometime Today
U.S.-based Aerospace Corp. and European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office have forecasted that Tiangong-1, a Chinese space station, will fall to early Sunday night around 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
The crash was originally believed to happen Saturday. However, PerSpace.com said the final re-entry time for the falling station would vary. However, ESA officials have pushed it back after the agency noticed the solar phenomena didn’t increase its descent rate speed.
They said the high-speed stream of sun particles ended up having no effect, and the space around the Earth is expected to have calmer weather for the next few days. Simply put, the atmosphere the Tiangong-1 is moving through didn’t increase the speed of the space station, which would have ensured the spacecraft coming down sooner.
While the Aerospace Corp. is tracking the ESAs, both entities feel the crash will occur within seven hours of the 7:30 p.m. ET. – be it earlier or later. While some alarms have sounded about the falling debris, the risk of it falling into a populated location or on a human being is low.
The Taigong-1 is only 18,750 pounds unlike the Skylab, which weighed 152,000 pounds and descended uncontrollably into the atmosphere. There were no fatalities reported from that.
There have been no confirmed deaths from any human space debris, and the odds of any space debris injuring a person is one in a trillion.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, said less than 500 pounds of the Tiangong-1 would actually fall back to the ground or sea. The only real risk would be something finding the debris and become contaminated from the hydrazine (toxic rocket fuel).
The only real effect is the view people will see if they’re near the crash site.
According to Holder Krag, ESA Space Debris Office chief, said it would completely decelerate and the energy carried will be subjected to aerodynamic forces and heat that rips apart. The impact area could be more than 600 miles.
Krag said anyone at the right place at the right time with a clear sky will see a great view. It can even be seen by the naked eye in daylight. He said a slow-moving shooting star would turn into several shooting stars. There may be a smoke trail, he said.
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