Re-entry of the NASA's abandoned UARS satellite into earth's atmosphere is expected in the early evening today. While NASA maintains that it will not be over North America at that time, they also insist it's too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any certainty.
Some 26 chunks of the old NASA satellite - roughly the size of a bus - will be dropping straight down at hundreds of miles per hour over an area of some 500 square miles at some point Friday night.
"We believe that the risk is sufficiently low that no one needs to, to change their behaviors," NASA's Mark Matney said Thursday.
As UARS - short for Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite - enters the atmosphere, everything changes. Bit by bit, pieces will cross the threshold about 60 miles up, enter the atmosphere and then drop straight down like stones - travelling at several hundred miles an hour depending on their shape.
The chunks will fall at different points along the satellite's path, meaning debris will cover 500 miles.
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