A failed spacecraft from the Soviet era, which was mistakenly caught on the orbit of the Earth more than 50 years ago, would collapse again on the planet in a few days, according to space experts.
Cosmos 482 Photo: x
Cosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of the Venera program of the Soviet Union, which intended to explore the planet Venus, according to NASA. The unmanned spacecraft had a successful initial launch on March 31, 1972 and temporarily orbit around the Earth.
However, he did not reach sufficient speed to launch on a transfer trajectory on Venus, NASA said, and the useful load – or the portion of the ship significantly related to the main mission of the ship – could not leave the Earth’s orbit.
Astronomers issue the hypothesis that a fault in a stopwatch has made the engine burn prematurely, writes ABC News.
The spacecraft then broke into four pieces. Two of the pieces, which remained in a low orbit, broke up in 48 hours. Orbital disintegration refers to a gradual decrease in altitude, gradually reducing the distance to a ship, according to NASA.
The other two pieces – including the large landing probe – remained blocked in the high orbit of the Earth. For decades, the probe has undergone orbital degradation, said NASA, and this degradation brought it close enough to return to the planet’s atmosphere around May 10.
Because the probe was designed to withstand the entry into the atmosphere of Venus – which is 90 times dense than that of the Earth – it is possible that some of it may survive the re -entry and continue the road to the surface of the planet, according to NASA.
The risk of Navacosmos 482 to hit people from the ground is low-but not impossible, wrote Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard-Smithsonian for Astrophysics, on his website last month.
“There is no need for major concern, but you would not want to hit your head,” McDowell wrote.
The landing probe is expected to return to the Earth’s atmosphere between Friday and Sunday, NASA said. The ship has a diameter of about 3.2 meters and weighs about 1,100 kilograms.
Starting on Tuesday, the place of landing has been estimated to be anywhere between the latitudes 52 N and 52 S. This large strip contains the United States, as well as most continents on Earth.
The time and place of returning to Earth will probably be predicted with more precision as the re -entering is approaching, according to NASA.
Astronomers are increasingly monitoring the spaces left near the earth during satellite launches and other spacecraft. Currently, there are over 1.2 million known pieces of spatial residues, of which 50. 000 measures more than 10 centimeters in diameter, according to a 2025 report of the European Space Agency.
“Even if we did not create new spatial debris, this would not be enough to prevent a series of unprecedented collisions and fragmentations,” said ESA in a statement.
