Chinese cities in path of satellite falling to earth
Source: Agencies |
October 24, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EXPERTS believe a defunct German research satellite has crashed over Asia, somewhere between the Indian Ocean and China, yesterday.
Two Chinese cities could have been in the path of the satellite.
Scientists are trying to establish just where it fell after warning that some parts might survive re-entry and crash at up to 450 kilometers an hour. But it is still not clear where the ROSAT satellite entered the atmosphere, according to Andreas Schuetz, spokesman for the German Aerospace Center.
Most parts of the minivan-sized satellite were expected to burn up, but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.7 tons could have crashed.
The center said the satellite entered the atmosphere between 0145 and 0215 GMT yesterday, and would have taken only 10 or 15 minutes to hit the ground.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the satellite appears to have gone down over southeast Asia.
Calculations by the US military indicate it must have crashed somewhere between the Indian Ocean off the coast of Myanmar, further inland in Myanmar or as far inland as China, he said.
McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks man-made space objects and who worked on one of ROSAT's instruments, said two Chinese cities, Chongqing and Chengdu, each with millions of inhabitants, were in the satellite's projected path.
"But if it had come down over a populated area there would be reports by now," he said.
Schuetz said it could take days to determine exactly where pieces of the satellite had fallen, but the agency had received no reports it had hit a populated area.
"I do not think we will have a confirmation of any sort today," he said.
Two Chinese cities could have been in the path of the satellite.
Scientists are trying to establish just where it fell after warning that some parts might survive re-entry and crash at up to 450 kilometers an hour. But it is still not clear where the ROSAT satellite entered the atmosphere, according to Andreas Schuetz, spokesman for the German Aerospace Center.
Most parts of the minivan-sized satellite were expected to burn up, but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.7 tons could have crashed.
The center said the satellite entered the atmosphere between 0145 and 0215 GMT yesterday, and would have taken only 10 or 15 minutes to hit the ground.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the satellite appears to have gone down over southeast Asia.
Calculations by the US military indicate it must have crashed somewhere between the Indian Ocean off the coast of Myanmar, further inland in Myanmar or as far inland as China, he said.
McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks man-made space objects and who worked on one of ROSAT's instruments, said two Chinese cities, Chongqing and Chengdu, each with millions of inhabitants, were in the satellite's projected path.
"But if it had come down over a populated area there would be reports by now," he said.
Schuetz said it could take days to determine exactly where pieces of the satellite had fallen, but the agency had received no reports it had hit a populated area.
"I do not think we will have a confirmation of any sort today," he said.
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