In 1972, the Soviet Union launched two probes whose objective was to reach Venus, The second planet from the sun in our solar system, penetrate its atmosphere and perch on its surface.
Venera 8 took off first and took 117 days to reach Venus, Planet that entered on July 22, 1972. Four days after the take -off of the first mission, the Cosmos 482 probe left the planet, which – however – failed to start the trip Interplanetary for which it was created.
when trying to leave the atmosphere, “It separated into four parts, two of which remained in low land orbit and disintegrated in 48 hours, and two parts (presumably the landing probe and the motor unit of the detached upper stage) were placed in a higher orbit”explains NASA.
According to the analysis, It is possible that a failure has caused the capsule engine to burn before reaching the necessary speed to start its transfer to Venus, so the parties were suspended in an elliptical orbit around the earth.
Now, after more than 50 years in which the orbit of the Cosmos 482 capsule was decaying, It is likely that this Saturday, May 10, 2025, the probe enters the Earth without control and impact a place between latitudes 52 north and 52 South, a wide strip in the middle of the planet in which countries like Colombia and Venezuela are found.
-NASA emphasizes that “since the probe was designed to resist entry into the atmosphere of Venus, it is possible that the re -entry into the Earth survives and reaches the surface”so different organisms make permanent monitoring of object behavior.
Nevertheless, The uncertainty about where I could impact will remain until its re -entry to the planet happens.
Collecting information from different sources, it has been established that The Cosmos 482 ship had a total weight of 1,184 kg. However, The part that was orbiting the earth would weigh around 495 kg.
The probe, which It worked with batteriesit also had a upper cover designed to detach when entering Venus and extend a parachute of 2.5 square meters.
Among the instruments he carried there were temperature, pressure and density sensors, as well as an accelerometer, a radio haltimeter, an anemometer, a gamma ray spectrometer, a gas analyzer, visible photometers and radio transmitters.
