Rome, 27 July 2022 – Chinese rocket e space debris, here we go again. New uncontrolled return for the Long March 5Bthis time it is the 22-ton central piece launched in recent days to bring the second module of the Tiangong space station. According to experts’ forecasts, it will fall to earth over the weekend. But where will it fall? Too early to say, the trajectory can be corrected and revised up to the last, clarifies Mauro Messerotti, solar physicist of INAF in Trieste. For the record: last year another piece of the same rocket ended up in‘Indian Ocean.
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Chinese rocket out of control and falling: what we know. The photo with the Virtual Telescope
What is the Chinese Long March 5B rocket
The rocket, explains the scientist, “is part of the so-called family space debris. Objects that can have the most different dimensions, from a millimeter to a few tens of meters. There are so many in orbit. The likelihood of a relapse on the Earth of the largest is considerable. Although generally they fall in desert areas or in the oceans, while the possibility of hitting inhabited areas remains extremely low. But it must still be considered “.
When it will fall
According to the latest forecasts, the Chinese rocket will hit Earth over the weekend.
Where will it fall?
It is not yet possible to answer this question, precisely because as mentioned in the introduction the trajectory may vary until the very end.
How much space waste is there?
According to the latest data fromEsa updated to 2021, in space they are in orbit 36,500 space debris greater than 10 centimeters, 130 million objects with a diameter greater than one millimeter up to 1 centimeter.