A Soviet-era spacecraft, Cosmos 482 (also spelled Kosmos 482), is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and crash on Saturday. Originally launched in March 1972 as part of a mission to explore Venus, the spacecraft was intended to make a soft landing and study the planet’s atmosphere. However, the mission failed, leaving the spacecraft stuck in Earth’s orbit for over 50 years.
According to CNN, Cosmos 482 is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere sometime between 10 p.m. ET on Friday and 6:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. The European Space Agency’s tracker provides a more precise estimate, predicting the descent to occur around 2:30 a.m. ET (06:37 UTC) on Saturday.
As per media reports, Cosmos 482 could crash anywhere between 52 degrees North and 52 degrees South latitude, which spans a significant portion of the globe. This range includes areas across North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Due to the vastness of the potential impact zone, accurately predicting the exact crash site in advance remains extremely difficult.
Most objects that reenter Earth’s atmosphere disintegrate before reaching the ground, says Vishnu Reddy, a planetary science professor at the University of Arizona. However, Cosmos 482 is an exception. “This is a lander built to survive Venus, where the atmosphere is 100 times denser than Earth’s. It was designed for extremely harsh conditions,” Reddy told AZ Family.
Due to its durable construction, some parts of the spacecraft may survive reentry, though the risk to people on the ground is considered very low.
“The hope is that most of it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. And even if any debris makes it through, it’ll likely fall into the ocean and be forgotten,” Reddy added. “You’d have to be incredibly unlucky to get hit by it.”
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