Posted on 09/22/2011 10:32:06 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The US space agency (Nasa) says that its out-of-control climate satellite is expected to crash to Earth sometime on Friday evening (GMT).
There is still much uncertainty over when and where the satellite will re-enter the atmosphere.
Experts say they will get a more precise idea in the last 12 hours before the satellite is due to return.
The US space agency says the risk to life from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is 1 in 3,200.
Satellite and space expert Dr Stuart Eves stressed the large uncertainties involved in tracking the "decay" of satellite orbits (their slow fall back into the Earth's atmosphere).
Using the most recent determination of UARS' orbit - taken in the early hours of this morning - Dr Eves and a colleague have come up with their own projections of the satellite's final descent. But he explained that a spacecraft's orbit lifetime could only be estimated to about 10% accuracy.
This translates to a six-hour window either side of the expected decay which, based on a range of probabilities, would see the spacecraft splash down in the Southern Ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
oh wow.. I hadn’t looked in a half hour.
Dow 10,688.72 -436.12 -3.92%
Gold 1,730.90 -74.60 -4.13%
tough call..
from the orbit map posted, it might just schwack Syria......
Just south of the Northern Ocean.. or sumthin’ geessh..
lol
We can STILL hope it’s Flo!!
Pleeze! Pleeze! If there’s a God in heaven, let it be Flo!!
;-)
The reentry burnup of a climate satellite is ... man-made climate warming LOL!
Just north of here
So if I start to see the light about the time this thing should land is that a good thing?
I’m with you - the numbers don’t add up unless the thing is carrying a bunch of nukes...
I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to have my umbrella with me all day.
We're down 436 for the day so far...
Financials are getting slaughtered, especially. It’s about as close to global capitulation as I’ve seen in a while. There is still some positive volume though, and we could see a bottom by tomorrow. But the fear is more than palpable out there...
Good catch - there isn't one...
It’s the water around Antarctica.
Satellite orbits are more or less stationary with respect to the “fixed” stars, not the rotating earth. Between successive 90 minute orbits, the earth will rotate approximately 22.5 degrees of longitude to the east, meaning, that for a person on the earth, the satellite will appear about 22.5 degrees in longitude further to the west between orbits. Over time, that satellite will cover almost the entire earth.
Here’s to a safe splashdown before Saturday evening worse case. We’re flying to Europe and would be crossing a flight path enroute.
That would make a heck of a video from an airliner window,, debris flying by... but I don’t want to be the one making it and we don’t need any new ruins in Europe, that would be a mess.
Meanwhile, Al Gore is cringing in the deepest fallout shelter he can find, curled up in a little ball while sobbing, saying that the satellite is going to destroy the Earth, killing everyone, and me! It’s going to kill me! (sob!)
I’m hoping it destroys the muslim mosque sitting on-top the temple mount.
Odds are even better that it could hit Michael the Hutt Moore.
Too much to hope it lands on Beijing?
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