Fears of catastrophe as runaway Chinese space station hurtles toward Earth
A Chinese space station will crash into Earth in a matter of months - and it could kill anyone who is standing beneath.
The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace”, satellite is now out of control and is doomed to plunge into the atmosphere, a top academic has warned.
“I expect it will come down a few months from now – late 2017 or early 2018,” Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard University astrophysicist, told The Guardian.
He previously warned that there was no way of telling exactly where the space station was going to plunge to Earth.
“You really can’t steer these things,” he said last year.
“Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down."
The station will reduce significantly in size as the Earth's atmosphere burns it up.
However, large chunks of metal could still fall to Earth and injure or kill anyone standing the impact site.
A spokesperson for China's space agency said: "Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling."
But a huge clump of metal could still rain down on unwitting victims.
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A Chinese space station will crash into Earth in a matter of months - and it could kill anyone who is standing beneath.
The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace”, satellite is now out of control and is doomed to plunge into the atmosphere, a top academic has warned.
“I expect it will come down a few months from now – late 2017 or early 2018,” Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard University astrophysicist, told The Guardian.
He previously warned that there was no way of telling exactly where the space station was going to plunge to Earth.
“You really can’t steer these things,” he said last year.
“Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down."
The station will reduce significantly in size as the Earth's atmosphere burns it up.
However, large chunks of metal could still fall to Earth and injure or kill anyone standing the impact site.
A spokesperson for China's space agency said: "Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling."
But a huge clump of metal could still rain down on unwitting victims.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/10/16/chinese-runaway-space-station-will-crash-to-earth-within-months-expert-warns.html
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