A Soviet probe launched in 1972 will crash on earth this Saturday, early morning. For the time being, the place where she could land is still unknown.
“It’s still a half-tonne thing that will fall from the sky,” warned astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell to Sky News. And for good reason: on Saturday, a space probe of the Soviet era should crash on earth, after having stayed in orbit for more than half a century, reports the BBC this Friday, May 9.
Launched in 1972 from Kazakhstan, the cosmos 482 probe had a mission to Venus, but failed to leave the low terrestrial orbit and broke into four pieces, according to NASA.
Consequently, one of the fragments will enter the earth’s atmosphere and part of the landing comprising the probe could survive without burning. For the time being, the place where she could land is still unknown by the experts.
“It is much more likely that you are gaining the lottery that you are touched by this space debris,” said Stijn Lemmens, principal analyst to reduce space debris at the European space agency.
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This capsule, which takes the form of a robust spherical object approximately a meter wide and weighing almost half a-tonne, was built to survive the heat and extreme pressure of the atmosphere of Venus, which means that it has a robust thermal shield and a lasting structure.
About 34,000 orbit objects around the earth
But concretely, what are the risks of this arrival? If experts think that debris could survive an uncontrolled descent into the earth’s atmosphere, experts indicate that the parachute system, to slow down the descent of the landing, is probably degraded for more than 50 years in space.
However, the risk for people is rather low, but the flight trajectory provided for the capsule could allow it to land anywhere, whether London or Colombia.
A priori, there is no concern to have, since “the return of objects manufactured by man in the earth’s atmosphere is quite frequent,” said analyst Stijn Lemmens to the British media Sky News. According to several French scientists, “the main danger lies in collisions between satellites and space debris”.
Today, French scientists estimate at 34,000 the number of objects greater than 10 centimeters in orbit around the earth.
