The Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth this week 53 years after its launch. Here is what to know.

Just weeks ago, scientists warned that a The “city murderer” is the asteroid She had a small opportunity to hit the ground. While this prediction was fortunate ReferenceThe planet may be forced to worry about the fall of another object of the heavens – a spacecraft in the seventies called Kosmos 482.

The spacecraft dating back to the Soviet era, which aims to land on Venus, will decline half a century ago.

It is too early to know where the mass of half a ton of metal can decrease or the amount of what will remain re -entering, according to experts that follow the space debris.

Dutch scientist Marco Langbrook, a lecturer at Delphlet University of Technology in the Netherlands, predicts that the failed spacecraft will return to about 10 May. It is estimated that it will collapse in 150 miles per hour, if it remains intact.

“Although there is no danger, we should not be very concerned,” Langbroke said in an email.

He said that the object is relatively small, and even if it does not explode, “the danger is like a risk of random fall, many of which occur every year. You are facing a greater danger to beating in your life.”

He added that the chance of the spacecraft hits someone or something small. “But it cannot be completely excluded.”

Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian astronomical physics center, told NPR that the spacecraft is making it.Final death decline.“

“I expect it to have one usual opportunity to infection to strike someone,” McDowell wrote last month. “No need to worry, but you don’t want to hit you on your head.”

Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972

The Soviet Union Kosmos 482 launched in 1972, one of a series of Venus missions. But he did not come out of the Earth’s orbit due to a missile malfunction.

Most of them came down within a decade. But Langbroek and others believe that the landing capsule itself – a spherical object about 3 feet – was spinning around the world in an oval orbit for 53 years, as it gradually decreased at a height.

It is completely possible to survive the spacecraft that exceeds 1000 pounds. Langbroke said it was built to bear the landing through the atmosphere of Venus Carbon dioxide.

Experts doubt that the umbrella system will work after many years. The heat shield may also be at risk after a long time in orbit.

In an e -mail, McDowwell said it would be better if the heat shield fails, which could cause the spacecraft to be burned while diving during the atmosphere. But if the heat shield is steadfast, “it will return to healthy and you have a metal body half a ton that falls from the sky.”

The spacecraft can re -enter anywhere between 51.7 degrees north and south, or north in the far north of London and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, almost to Cape Horn in South America. But since most of the planet is water, “it is good that it already ends in some oceans,” said Langberruck.

Space debris can affect planes

The researchers warned, warned in a A recent study.

The authors of the study said that the possibility of space debris that reaches a small plane, but the risk is rising due to the increases in both the re -entered the wreckage and trips.

The study found that high -density areas close to the main airports have a 0.8 % opportunity annually because they are affected by the re -introduction of a missile that is not subject to control, but in the “largest air fields but still busy” such as those in the northeastern United States or around the main cities in Asia, the danger increased to 26 %.

“While the possibility of a strike is low, the consequences may be catastrophic,” the study researchers said. It was published in scientific reports.

The unwanted space on Earth was hit recently

Space debris has been destroyed again to Earth in recent months.

In February, the debris entered the Spacex Falcon 9 missile, which was launched in the United States to the Earth’s atmosphere over Poland. two Cut from an unidentified object Both were measured about 5 feet and 3 feet – later on the ground. Police said things could have come from a Spacex missile.

On the eve of the last year, the fragments of the metal, which is believed to be from a missile, crashed to a A village in Kenya.

In March 2024, NASA faced a lawsuit From a family her house in Florida was hit by a piece of falling metal.

In the previous month, the European Space Agency said that the satellite – which weighs the male -century – is made Unexpected return to EarthRe -introducing the atmosphere on the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the satellite was burned during the Earth’s atmosphere.