A LARGE satellite has plummetted into Earth’s atmosphere today after a tense re-entry process.
The European Space Agency’s ERS-2 satellite was launched in 1995 for an Earth observation study.
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Scientists weren’t sure exactly where the satellite would land.
ERS-2’s Earth-observing duties were halted in 2011 when the ESA emptied its fuel tank to lower its altitude and save the hardware from a collision with other, operational, satellites.
When it was first launched, the satellite weighed 5,547 lbs (2,516kg).
In its final phase, without the fuel, it pushed the scales to roughly 5,057 pounds (2,294kg) – that’s slightly heavier than a male Rhinoceros or a Tesla Model X.
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Despite its large size, most of the satellite was expected to burn up when it entered the atmosphere.
There was still a chance that its 115lb antenna could remain intact and crash land somewhere on Earth.
The ESA has now confirmed this didn’t happen and a piece of the satellite actually landed in the ocean.
“We have confirmation of the atmospheric reentry of ERS-2 at 17:17 UTC (18:17 CET) +/- 1 minute over the North Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Hawaii,” the space agency wrote on X.
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The ESA decided to de–orbit the satellite to try and help reduce space junk.
This involved 66 manoeuvres that used up the remaining fuel on the craft.
It was then at a lower orbit and less of a collision risk for other objects in space.
The ESA couldn’t be sure when the satellite would fall back to Earth.
It was suspected sometime within 15 years, and according to The Next Web, it’s now 13 years later.
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The ESA’s latest last prediction suggested the is the satellite fell to Earth around 12:05pm ET (5:05pm GMT).
“We have now reached the end of the final reentry window.
“We have received no new observations of ERS-2.
“This may mean that the satellite has already reentered, but we are waiting for information from our partners before we can confirm,” the space agency’s blog stated at the time.
Crash zone
There is always some degree of risk when it comes to space objects shooting towards Earth.
Even if a satellite doesn’t fully burn up in the atmosphere, there’s still no need to panic.
The chance of a person being hit by space debris is under one in 100 billion annually, according to the ESA.
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There is a high chance that any debris will land in the ocean as water covers about 70 percent of Earth.
“The vast majority of the satellite will burn up, and any pieces that survive will be spread out somewhat randomly over a ground track on average hundreds of kilometres long and a few tens of kilometres wide (which is why the associated risks are very, very low),” ESA said.
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