The Soviet probe is to fall to the ground. Latest calculations

Recently, the world has spread information that in the second week of May an old Soviet space probe of Kosmos 482 is to enter the atmosphere of the Earth. The machine has been encircling our planet for several decades as cosmic rubbish after a failed flight to Venus.

When will the object enter the atmosphere of our planet? Experts estimate that this is to happen between May 8 and 12. Astronoma Marco Langbroek from the Dutch University of Technology in Delft announced on his blog on Tuesday that the estimated time of entering the atmosphere was 10.37 on Saturday, May 10. However, the date contains a margin of error – the incident can occur both the day before and the day later. Object – built so as to withstand the journey through the dense atmosphere of Venus – it should fall to the ground in one piece.

It is not known where the probe will fall. The potential area where this can happen includes most of our planet. According to Langbroek, the machine's orbit shows that it is to happen between the 52th northern parallel and 52. Southern parallel. This means that almost all of the United States, South America, Africa, Australia, part of Asia and most Europe, including Poland are “threatened”. Experts will not be able to narrow down the potential landing zone of the Kosmos 482 probe until it begins the actual falling process by the atmosphere.

All this information may sound disturbing, but the risk that this type of space object will fall into some populated area is extremely small. Over 70 percent of the earth's surface is water – it is very likely that Kosmos 482 will land in the ocean. The same happens with other cosmic waste that undergo deorbit. As Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote on his blog, the probability that the probe “will fall directly on your head” is as much as in the case of other space garbage falling on earth.