No, we’re not joking. NASA has just revealed details of a satellite “the size of a bus” due to collide with the Earth’s surface sometime tomorrow. The worst bit? It could land “almost anywhere”. Time to don your tinfoil hat and head to the cellar.
NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will crash land tomorrow, weighing more than six tonnes, its speed means NASA will only have a 20 minute warning of its exact trajectory and, more worryingly, Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at NASA, has told The Telegraph: “We know it is going to hit somewhere between 57 north latitude and 57 south latitude, which covers most of the inhabited world unfortunately.”
Although the odds of it hitting you are, apparently, less than those of being struck by lightning, NASA is still not taking any chances. “NASA has warned people not to touch the debris if they come across it because it is likely to have sharp edges,” says The Telegraph. Tinfoil hat, and gloves, then.
