Kosmos 482: Soviet spacecraft will likely fall to Earth this week
Soviet-era spacecraft likely to crash back to Earth
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Maddie Molloy
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The Soviet Union launched a number of missions to explore Venus – this probe was from an earlier flight
Part of a Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to crash back to Earth this week after being stuck in orbit for more than half a century.
Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of a mission to Venus but it never escaped low Earth orbit and separated into four pieces, according to Nasa.
One of those pieces, believed to be the lander probe, is expected to re-enter our atmosphere around 10 May and at least part of it could survive the journey without burning up, according to Nasa.
There is much we don't know about the re-entry, including where it might land, but even if any of it does survive, 70% of the planet is covered by sea so it is unlikely to cause significant damage.
"It's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by this piece of space debris." said Mr Stijn Lemmens, Senior Space Debris Mitigation Analyst at the European Space Agency.
The lander capsule is a tough, spherical object about a metre wide and weighs nearly half a tonne.
It was built to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus's atmosphere, meaning it has a robust heat shield and durable structure.
This is why experts think it may survive an uncontrolled descent through Earth's atmosphere.
The parachute system, originally intended to slow the lander's descent towards Venus, is likely long since degraded after more than 50 years in space.
The risk to people on the ground is considered low, but the capsule's projected flight path could see it land anywhere between 51.7° north and south latitude, covering most of the inhabited world.
This means it could potentially land anywhere from as far north as London to as far south as the southern tip of South America.
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