Experts say lower Michigan falls among one of the areas with the highest probability where free-falling 8.5-ton Chinese space station will crash into Earth
Scientists have an idea where and when China’s free-falling 8.5-ton space station will crash into Earth. In a report by the Aerospace Corporation, Tiangong-1 is predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on or about April 3, 2018. They identified specific regions on Earth where debris from the space station could fall. A portion of lower Michigan is included on the northern “yellow band” region, which has a “higher probability” of encountering debris from the Chinese spacecraft.
From Aerospace Corporation:
There is a chance that a small amount of Tiangong-1 debris may survive reentry and impact the ground. Should this happen, any surviving debris would fall within a region that is a few hundred kilometers in size and centered along a point on the Earth that the station passes over. The map below shows the relative probabilities of debris landing within a given region. Yellow indicates locations that have a higher probability while green indicates areas of lower probability. Blue areas have zero probability of debris reentry since Tiangong-1 does not fly over these areas (north of 42.7° N latitude or south of 42.7° S latitude). These zero probability areas constitute about a third of the total Earth’s surface area.
When considering the worst-case location (yellow regions of the map) the probability that a specific person (i.e., you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about one million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot. In the history of spaceflight, no known person has ever been harmed by reentering space debris. Only one person has ever been recorded as being hit by a piece of space debris and, fortunately, she was not injured.
Yet more Chinese materials that may flow into our country without a tariff! 😊
