China's Long March 5B Debris Is Headed Towards Earth, Likely to Enter Atmosphere Next Week

The debris is a part of Long March 5B rocket that took off from China's Hainan Island on July 24.

By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 29 July 2022 13:23 IST

China's Long March 5B Debris Is Headed Towards Earth, Likely to Enter Atmosphere Next Week

Photo Credit: Aerospace Corporation

There are chances of the object not completely burning up in the atmosphere

Highlights

The remnants of the rocket are less likely to cause any damage to Earth
The rocket was successfully docked with China's Tiangong Space Station
Some parts of the humongous object are expected to survive the fall

A massive metal object could be hurtling towards our planet Earth these days, possibly entering the atmosphere next week. The object, in question, is a part of a Chinese rocket booster, which is headed towards Earth. The debris measures 53.6 metres in length and has a weight of 23 metric tonnes. The rocket, of which the object was a part, is a 23-ton Long March 5B rocket that took off from Hainan Island on July 24. It carried the Wentian laboratory module to space, which was successfully docked with China's Tiangong Space Station, according to The Aerospace Corporation.

However, now that the rocket has done its job, it is heading back to us in an uncontrollable descent. While such debris gets burned up completely in Earth's atmosphere posing no risk to life here, some parts of the humongous object are expected to survive the fall and make an impact on our planet.

The remnants of the rocket are less likely to cause any damage in case they hit Earth. What is concerning is the fact that the site of the object's landing is yet to be ascertained. Researchers around the globe are on their toes and are working to track the debris. According to the Aerospace Corporation, which is tracking the booster's reentry, the rocket body may enter the Earth's atmosphere on July 31.

“Due to the uncontrolled nature of its descent, there is a non-zero probability of the surviving debris landing in a populated area — over 88 percent of the world's population lives under the reentry's potential debris footprint,” a press release by the Aerospace Corporation read.

The company has cautioned that there are chances of the object not completely burning up in the atmosphere, considering the size. “A reentry of this size will not burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, and the general rule of thumb is that 20 – 40 percent of the mass of a large object will reach the ground, though it depends on the design of the object,” the statement further read.

We discuss the best of Google I/O 2022 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.