DENVER — A piece of space history is expected to hurtle toward Earth in the next 24 hours, and researchers in Colorado are keeping an eye on it.
A Russian spacecraft called Kosmos 482 will fall out of orbit and crash back down to Earth sometime between Friday afternoon and just after midnight Saturday morning. The University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is closely watching its reentry.
Kosmos 482 launched from Russia in 1972 on a mission to Venus. Technical problems prevented it from ever getting there, and it’s been in Earth's orbit ever since.
Marcin Pilinski, research associate at LASP, said the spacecraft was designed to enter the atmosphere of Venus, which is much denser and hotter than Earth's; therefore, it's not expected to break apart during reentry tomorrow.
Pilinski said this is a significant and rare event.
"Yes, it is. Both because of its history and because of its really unique orbit and how it interacted with the Earth. It's been in this delicate dance with Earth's upper atmosphere for decades, and people like myself are very excited to learn from the object and learn from its many years of orbiting the Earth," said Pilinski.
Scientists are still struggling to pinpoint the reentry point, but Pilinski said the best guess is somewhere in the ocean near Asia. Pilinski added that even if it falls on land, it is compact — only 3.5 feet in diameter — so the odds of it hitting someone are very low.
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