THUNDER BAY – NASA is now predicting that the UARS satellite, which is likey to re-enter earth’s atmosphere by Friday could impact Northern Canada. The satellite which was decommissioned in 2005 is being impacted by strong solar activity which slows down the satellite. “Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, plus or minus a day. The re-entry of UARS is advancing because of a sharp increase in solar activity since the beginning of this week,” according to NASA.
This means the UARS is ahead of earlier predictions to re-enter earth’s atmosphere.
The satellite is about the size of a transit bus, and NASA predicts that it will break up into at least 26 pieces as it enters earth’s atmosphere.
NASA states, “A significant amount of debris does not survive the severe heating which occurs during re-entry. Components which do survive are most likely to fall into the oceans or other bodies of water or onto sparsely populated regions like the Canadian Tundra, the Australian Outback, or Siberia in the Russian Federation. During the past 50 years an average of one cataloged, or tracked, piece of debris fell back to Earth each day. No serious injury or significant property damage caused by re-entering debris has been confirmed”.
Photo courtesy of NASA.