A component of a defunct Soviet spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Earth for 53 years, is on the verge of crashing back to the planet. The Kosmos 482 probe, launched by the USSR in 1972, was designed to gather data from Venus, but it became stranded in orbit due to a failure in its upper-stage rocket booster.
Kosmos 482 disintegrated shortly after launch. While some debris re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in the 1980s, other pieces, including the 1,091-pound (495 kilograms) lander that measures approximately three feet, have been gradually descending and are predicted to crash around May 10th, according to Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek.
It remains uncertain where the debris will land, or whether it will burn up upon reentry. However, as Langbroek points out on his blog, “this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere,” which averages a scorching 867 degrees Fahrenheit (464 degrees Celsius), indicating that it might endure the reentry process. The descent is also expected to be uncontrolled, as there are serious doubts about the functionality of the lander’s parachute deployment system after so many years.
The actual probability of being struck by Kosmos 482 is exceedingly low. “The risk is comparable to that of being hit by a random meteorite, which occurs several times each year,” Langbroek stated to The Guardian. “You are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime.”
