It's as big as a bus and weighs 6 tons, but officials probably will never be able to pinpoint exactly where a massive NASA satellite plummeted to Earth.
NASA, via Getty Images
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite during its deployment in September 1991.
NASA space junk scientists think that all or nearly all of the parts of their 20 year old dead satellite safely plunged into the Pacific Ocean, likely missing land. But if their estimates are off, by only five minutes or so, fiery pieces could have fallen on parts of northwestern North America.
No injuries or damage have been reported on land, which NASA said was a good indication that the satellite went into the ocean.
That doesn't really mean it all fell into the sea. Some debris could have fallen over areas such as Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Calgary, Alberta; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
"Pieces are falling off of this flaming fire ball, and some of it has enough momentum to go hundreds of miles.
Speculation was rampant on sites such as Twitter. There were no credible reports of debris on the ground. But if the satellite fell even five minutes later than estimated, some of it could have hit land.
The wait is over. NASA's bus-sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) has fallen, becoming the largest runaway chunk of space junk to drop back down to Earth since two satellites, including the behemoth Sky Lab, punched the atmosphere in 1979.
"We can now confirm that #UARS is down!" reported the official NASA Twitter account. "Debris fell to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23, and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24."
The satellite, broken up into 26 titanium and other hard alloy pieces expected to survive the firey descent, reportedly fell at least partly on land. Twitter and YouTube reports pinpointed landfall in Okotoks, Canada, near Calgary.
By; Sarah Goff :)
