 In the words of Chicken Little, "The sky is falling." While Chicken Little is a children's tale, there are reports that one of NASA's satellites will be hitting the Earth on Friday afternoon, September 23. Although, debris from space enters Earth's atmosphere daily, most of it burns up before encountering land or water. This case is different due to the satellite's materials, which are designed to handle the extreme elements in space and upon reentry to Earth. As of now, NASA officials are not exactly sure where the satellite will land on Earth. However, they continue to assure the public that the falling satellite is an "extremely small" risk. This may sound frightening, but as over 70% of the globe is water, this leaves a small possibility that the components will hit land, let alone people. In an update Thursday morning, NASA announced, "Reentry is expected sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time. The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period." Aerospace Corporation, a private firm tracking the NASA satellite, made a few predictions about time and location. The firm believes the satellite will hit off the coast of Chile around 6pm EST but also cautions that the time and location will most likely change by Friday. |
