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| http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/2114/1/1/how-to-draw-a-meteor.htm |
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: September 22, 2011
The odds that a falling satellite will kill you on Friday are probably zero — but maybe not quite.
NASA, via Associated Press -- A dead hulk of a NASA satellite the size of a bus is skimming the top of the atmosphere, and as air molecules bounce off, its orbit is decaying until gravity finally pulls it down as a fiery meteor.
To be specific, 26 large pieces of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, the heaviest about 330 pounds, are expected to survive all the way and hit the surface. The debris will stretch along a 500-mile path.
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Launched in 1991 by the space shuttle Discovery, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was decommissioned in 2005 and placed into a lower orbit so it would not cause any problems for the International Space Station. Now, in what NASA calls an “uncontrolled” re-entry — there is no more fuel to guide it — it will plop down somewhere on Friday afternoon, give or take a few hours.
