A Soviet vessel dating from the 1970s, initially designed to land on Venus, could make an uncontrolled return to the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming days.
Called Kosmos 482, this machine of around 500 kg never left the terrestrial orbit because of a failure of its launcher. Although a large part of the aircraft has been falling back for a long time, the experts believe that the landing capsule – a sphere of a meter in diameter – continues to gravitate around the earth for more than 50 years, on a very elliptical orbit, by gradually losing altitude.
According to Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek, the atmospheric back to school could occur around May 10, at an estimated speed of 242 km/h if the object remains intact. The risk for populations is deemed very low: “It is comparable to the fall of a meteorite, which happens several times a year,” he said. “The risk of being struck by lightning is higher. »»
-However, if the module thermal shield still works, it could protect the capsule, which would reach the intact soil. On the other hand, his wing parachute, several decades, would probably not work.
The American scientist Jonathan McDowell stresses that it would even be preferable that the thermal shield fails, which would lead to the disintegration of the object in the atmosphere. Otherwise, “It is a metal block of half a-tonne that would fall from the sky”.
The fallout remains uncertain, but the possible area extends between 51.7 ° north and south latitude, from Edmonton to Canada to Cape Horn in South America. The good news: most of the planet being covered with water, there is a good chance that the object ends its race in an ocean.
