CNN
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A Soviet spacecraft, designed to make a soft descent in Venus but that was trapped in the earth’s orbit for decades, probably fell from the early sky in the early hours of this Saturday, according to the European space Agency (that for its acronym in English).
It is believed that the object, known as Cosmos 482 or Kosmos 482, is a capsule launched by the Soviet Union in March 1972 that failed in its route to an orbit of transfer that would have taken it to Venus to study its environment. The probe entered the dense layers of the atmosphere around 9:24 am, Moscow time (2:24 am Miami Time) this Saturday, amerizing in the Indian ocean west of Yakarta, Indonesia, according to the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.
ESA, one of several organizations that uses land sensors to monitor the fall of space garbage, also indicated on its website that the vehicle was not detected by radars in Germany around 7:32 UT (3:32 am Miami time), which indicates that “most likely it is that the re -entry has already occurred”.
In the decades elapsed since its launch, Cosmos 482 has turned aimlessly around the earth while slowly dragged back home.
Astronomers and space traffic experts have been observing the object for years, since their orbital trajectory has been gradually descending, due to the subtle atmospheric resistance that exists even hundreds of kilometers from the earth.
The ship, in a cylindrical way, has approximately one meter in diameter.
Because the spacecraft no longer had the ability to maneuver, it was intended to suffer what space traffic experts call an uncontrolled return: a return to Earth in an extremely difficult way to precisely forecast. The great complexity of spatial flights and unpredictable factors, such as space climate, hinders efforts to determine exactly when an object will fall out of orbit.
This particular object did not represent a substantial risk for people on earth, according to experts to CNN. However, it attracted international attention due to the unique history of Cosmos 482.
“This object was designed to survive its entry into Venus, so there is good chances of surviving its return (to Earth) intact,” Marlon Sorge, an expert in spatial waste from The Aerospace Corporation, said on Monday. “That, in fact, reduces the risk … because it would remain intact.”
Often, when space trash returns to Earth, objects such as off -service rocket parts disintegrate due to impact, since they can hit the dense terrestrial inner atmosphere while traveling more than 27,000 kilometers per hour (17,000 miles per hour).
Each piece of the rocket can represent a threat to the area where it lands.
But Cosmos 482 is exceptionally prepared to return home intact. The spacecraft has a substantial thermal shield that protects it from the intense temperatures and pressures that can accumulate during the re -entry.
And since Cosmos 482 was designed to reach the surface of Venus, where the atmosphere is 90 times denser than that of the earth, the probe is likely to reach the earth.
The Space Research Institute of the Soviet Union, or IKI, directed a pioneering program for exploration of Venus in full space race of the twentieth century.
Venera, as the program was called, sent a series of probes to Venus in the 1970s and 1980s. Several spacecraft survived the trip and transmitted data to the Earth before ceasing their operations.
However, of the two venera ships launched in 1972, only one arrived in Venus.
The other, a spacecraft sometimes listed as V-71 No. 671, did not succeed. And that is why researchers believe that the object that space traffic experts are tracking is Cosmos 482. From the 1960s, Soviet vehicles that remained in land orbit were called cosmos and a numerical designation for tracking purposes, according to NASA.
While an landing on the mainland was unlikely, it was not impossible. The trajectory of Cosmos 482 indicated that it could have landed in a wide strip of land that covers “all Africa, South America, Australia, the United States, parts of Canada, parts of Europe and parts of Asia,” said Marco Langbroek, professor and space traffic expert at the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands), by email.
Sorge emphasized that if Cosmos 482 had landed on the mainland, observers would have been recommended to keep distance. The old spacecraft could have dangerous fuel leaks or represent other risks for people and goods.
“Contact the authorities,” said Sorge. “Please do not get into her.”
Legally, the object belongs to Russia. According to the rules established in the 1967 outer space treaty (which remains the main document that supports international law in the matter), the country that launched an object to space retains its property and responsibility for it even if it crashes in the earth decades after the launch.
Although unused objects in space fall routinely out of orbit, most fragments are completely disintegrate during the re -entry process.
But the world is in the middle of a new space race, with commercial companies such as Spacex launching hundreds of new satellites at orbit every year. This sudden increase in activity has generated alarm in the community traffic community, since experts seek to ensure that objects do not collide in space or represent a risk for humans if they make an uncontrolled descent back home.
The security standards have improved dramatically since the space race of the twentieth century, when the Soviet Venus probe was launched, said Parker Wishik, spokesman for The Aerospace Corporation.
Even so, incidents such as the re -entry of Cosmos 482 are a hard reminder.
“What goes up, goes down,” Wishik said. “What is thrown into space today could affect us for decades.”
