NASA confirms debris hits Earth
Posted Sep 24, 2011 05:21:28 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What is known is that Nasa’s UARS satellite entered Earth’s atmosphere and impacted the planet sometime between 11:45 p.m. Friday and 12:45 a.m. Saturday. What isn’t known, is where it landed.
One of the predicted paths saw the stretch of Canada between northern Quebec and northern Alberta become a possible landing ground.
There have been unconfirmed sighting in Alberta, including this amateur video from Okotoks, Alberta, posted on Youtube.
“The satellite’s orientation or configuration apparently has changed,” the space agency said in an earlier update. Perhaps some piece had broken off, NASA said, leaving it more streamlined as it tumbled through the upper atmosphere. “That is now slowing its descent,” NASA said.
The satellite circles the Earth on a tilted orbit, and as the planet turns each day, different locations pass underneath.
At least 26 pieces, the largest at 330 pounds, are expected to survive the plunge and land along a path 500 miles long.
