- Aug 6, 2012
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Thankfully it landed in the ocean.
Nearly 20 tons of Chinese space debris tracks over New York City and falls to Earth
For a few hours Monday, scientists held their breath as they watched a nearly 20-ton piece of space debris from a Chinese rocket fall through the sky and pass over Los Angeles and New York City, uncontrolled.
The speed at which the debris — the fourth-largest to return to Earth uncontrolled — was travelling made it hard for scientists to guess where the debris would ultimately crash. “It was travelling very fast horizontally in the atmosphere and it’s hard to predict where it would come down,” Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, told CNN.
Nearly 20 tons of Chinese space debris tracks over New York City and falls to Earth
For a few hours Monday, scientists held their breath as they watched a nearly 20-ton piece of space debris from a Chinese rocket fall through the sky and pass over Los Angeles and New York City, uncontrolled.
The speed at which the debris — the fourth-largest to return to Earth uncontrolled — was travelling made it hard for scientists to guess where the debris would ultimately crash. “It was travelling very fast horizontally in the atmosphere and it’s hard to predict where it would come down,” Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, told CNN.
