October 19, 2011 - Here we go again, and it won't be the last time: Another hunk of space junk will crash back to Earth within the next few days. This weekend, in fact.The German Aerospace Center DLR says one of their satellites, called ROSAT, is expected to return to our planet's surface in a fiery way sometime betweenOct. 21 and 24. ROSAT was launched in 1990. DLR says that as many as 30 pieces of the satellite will smash through the atmosphere at 280 mph. You can follow the re-entry in progress at the German Aerospace Center's website (English and/und auf Deutsche).
httpv://youtu.be/yezo3SMoPN8 This should not worry you any more than the recent crash of the much larger Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). That was the NASA bird that came down on September 24, 2011. As then, the exact location of the impact of ROSAT is not yet known.
The odds of being hit by chunks of ROSAT are about the same as with the UARS crash. Remember that UARS was about the size of a schoolbus, whereas ROSAT is more car-like in size. (Video auf Deutsch hier)
Still, there will probably be those who will panic and hide in their basements, fearing the extremely unlikely satellite head injury. Forget about it and just enjoy your weekend.
If you live in Arizona, for example, you're more likely to be abducted by narco-terrorists on Saturday than to be hit by a piece of ROSAT.
DLR says that the biggest fragment of the satellite to make it all the way down is probably the heat resistant mirror of the satellite's telescope.
ROSAT was shut down in 1999. It was primarily used for studying black holes and neutron stars. It also made the first-ever all-sky survey of X-ray sources by using an imaging telescope.
Also See:
German Satellite ROSAT Plunging to Earth This Weekend
Old German satellite hurtles toward Earth
Satellit auf Crash-Kurs: "Rosat" stürzt bald auf die Erde
