Latest news with #Kosmos482
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch how an old Venus spacecraft tumbled before crashing to Earth
Before a Soviet-era spacecraft intended for Venus crashed back to Earth over the weekend, German astronomers watched it tumble through space. As Kosmos 482 took its last laps, a German radar station spotted the uncrewed landing capsule passing over its antenna. The station, the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR, has combined its observations with an image of a similar capsule to show the spacecraft's orientation and features in the radar reflection. The data, presented as a GIF farther down in this story, helped the European Space Agency track the probe in its final hours, though its final resting place — most likely a watery grave — is still unknown. If it indeed plunged into the Indian Ocean as some computer simulations have suggested, "only the whales and albatross saw it," said Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek in a post on X. SEE ALSO: Stunning video reveals Jupiter's roiling auroras. See it now. A predecessor to the lost Soviet spacecraft, either the Venera 5 or Venera 6 capsule, is being prepared for launch in January 1969, in this still image taken from the film "The Storming of Venus." Credit: Sovfoto / Universal Images Group / Getty Images The Venera mission, which launched from Kazakhstan on March 31, 1972, failed long before the Soviet Union could attempt to touch down on Venus. Because of a propulsion problem, it never escaped Earth's orbit. A half-century later, the landing capsule was predicted to reenter the atmosphere. That day arrived on Saturday, May 10. Space debris and expired satellites often fall back to Earth inconsequentially, mostly burning up on the way down. Whatever survives often plummets into an ocean, never to be found. This anticipated-yet-uncontrolled reentry was to be exceptional, though: It grabbed the attention of researchers and military officials because of its potential to survive the journey mostly intact. After all, the 1,000-pound spacecraft was built to withstand the harsh environment of an alien planet — the hottest in the solar system, in fact. Venus' climate could melt lead, and the atmospheric pressure is 75 times that of Earth. Watch the GIF of the tumbling Soviet spacecraft in the above X post. Credit: Fraunhofer FHR Fraunhofer FHR was likely the last to see Kosmos 482. It passed about 62 miles overhead on May 10, at 8:04 a.m. CEST, according to the station. When the object was not detected again one orbit later, at 9:32 a.m. CEST, researchers reasonably assumed the landing or splashdown occurred between those two times. A tracking and imaging radar like the one used by the German station is a way to observe space, but it's not a telescope. It uses radio waves instead of light to study objects, such as satellites, debris, and meteors. Exactly where and when this Cold War space race relic died is unclear, as it seems there were no eyewitnesses to the fall. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos said it plummeted over the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta, Indonesia, at 9:24 a.m. Moscow time, according to a Telegram post, and NASA appears to be accepting of that data. Other reports, some based on earlier predictions, varied. The U.S. Space Command, which tracks reentering space objects, has not confirmed any reports or provided its own data on Kosmos 482. An information request from Mashable wasn't answered Tuesday.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Kosmos 482's Final Descent Captured in One Haunting Image
More than 50 years ago in the early 1960s, the Soviet space program embarked on a bold new undertaking to go where no human had gone before. The Venera mission to explore Earth's nearest orbital neighbor, Venus, is to date the only mission to have successfully landed spacecraft on the deeply inhospitable planet. But, of the 29 probes dispatched on the Venera mission, only 16 landed on or orbited the nearby world. Most of the remainder got temporarily stuck in Earth orbit, falling back to the surface in the same year they were launched. One probe, renamed Kosmos 482, took a little more time to return. Launched in March 1972, it spent just over 53 years stuck looping through space before finally plunging through our atmosphere on 10 May 2025 in an uncontrolled reentry that captured the global imagination. Now, images captured by a German radar station present what is likely to be the last time we'll ever see the failed probe. The data, captured by Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR on 8 May 2025, shows the tumbling roll of Kosmos 482 as it falls through space. As for where it ended up, that is currently unknown and is likely to remain unknown, unless more data becomes available. "The Soviet-era object was last spotted over Germany at 08:04 CEST on 10 May by our colleagues at Fraunhofer FHR as it passed through the sky over their antenna. Because the descent craft was not spotted one orbit later, at the expected 09:32 CEST pass, the reentry can be assumed to have occurred between these two times," the European Space Agency explained on its tracking blog for the object. "A precise time and location of its reentry have so far not been identified. We have not received any reports on direct visual observations of the final reentry or of any impacts on ground." Currently, based on extremely detailed modeling, the best estimate for where it fell is somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This is probably for the best. The conditions on Venus are perhaps most aptly described as hellacious. Surface temperatures average around 464 degrees Celsius (867 Fahrenheit), and atmospheric pressure is about 92 times higher than the atmospheric pressure at sea level here on Earth. Oh, and it rains sulfuric acid (which evaporates before it hits the ground, but any descending spacecraft still needs to get through the atmosphere). All this to say that the Venera probes were built to be extremely sturdy, and scientists thought it likely that Kosmos 482 would at least partially survive the searing heat of reentry to hit the ground intact or in chunks. No one wants a Venus lander raining on their heads. There is, unfortunately, still a lot of defunct junk circling our planet. Once the scope of the problem started to emerge, space agencies began to push a spacecraft design philosophy called Design for Demise. It is what it sounds like: objects sent into Earth orbit should be designed in such a way that they will harmlessly burn up on reentry. However, not all manufacturers have adopted this approach, and we're still sending spacecraft into Earth orbit faster than they can come down. In addition, even spacecraft that are designed to burn up can release ozone-depleting chemicals into Earth's atmosphere. Humanity has been treating low-Earth orbital space with reckless abandon. We were relatively lucky that the descent of Kosmos 482 caused no known problems, but it's a sobering reminder that even space, for us, is not limitless. Sun Unleashes Most Powerful Flare We've Seen in 2025 Venus May Be More Earth-Like Than We Thought – And It's Still Moving The Martian Night Sky Was Seen Turning Green in a Stunning First
Daily Mirror
13-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Exact location failed spacecraft hit as it crashed back to Earth after 53 years
Failed Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 came crashing back down to Earth after more than half a century in space - and scientists have now confirmed where it ended up The landing spot of a failed Soviet spacecraft that came crashing down to Earth at the weekend has been revealed. Kosmos 482, was launched by the USSR in 1972 and once bound for Venus, but a badly configured timer onboard the probe meant it never left our planet's orbit. Instead, the lander section of the spacecraft spent decades spiralling back towards Earth, catching the eye of space agencies, the US military and astronomers, who monitored it closely. In the last few weeks, experts announced that the spacecraft was due to enter Earth's atmosphere on May 10, and said it could land anywhere between 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south latitude - sparking frenzied speculation as to where it would end up. In the end, Kosmos 482's re-entry to Earth after more than half a century in space went largely unnoticed, and it was initially unclear where it had landed, reports Manchester Evening News. On Saturday morning, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed that the Kosmos 482 descent craft was not spotted by radar systems over Germany at the time it was expected to pass. The ESA said "it is most likely that the re-entry has already occurred". But later that day, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos reported: "The spacecraft entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 9:24 Moscow time [6.24am UK time], 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, and fell into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta." Because the lander was designed to withstand entry into Venus' harsh atmosphere, it is possible it survived re-entry, according to NASA. The space agency said Kosmos 482 landed in the ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia. No damage or injuries were reported, and the lack of any fireball sightings suggests it landed far out to sea - and far away from any populated areas. This was largely in line with astronomers' expectations, and ESA had stated that the "risk of any satellite re-entry causing injury" is "extremely remote." The space agency added: "The annual risk of an individual human being injured by space debris is under 1 in 100 billion. In comparison, a person is about 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning." However, it certainly will not be the last man-made structure that comes crashing back to Earth, and the spacecraft's return highlights the growing risk of potentially hazardous space debris orbiting Earth. Kosmos 482 was just one of more than 1.2 million pieces of space debris measuring larger than centimetre in size, according to a report by the ESA. Satellites or rocket bodies are now re-entering the Earth's atmosphere more than three times a day, with orbital collisions and uncontrolled re-entries happening increasingly often.
The Independent
13-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Kosmos 482: Out-of-control Russian spacecraft probably just fell to Earth, experts say
An out-of-control Russian spacecraft has probably plummeted to Earth, after 53 years stuck in orbit, experts say. In recent weeks, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 has been making an uncontrolled approach towards Earth. Experts have been tracking it since – though they noted that it was very unlikely that it would land over a populated era. Now, the European Space Agency and others say the spacecraft has most likely hit the Earth. It was not spotted on its most recent pass over radar in Germany, the agency said, and predictions based on its orbit and previous location suggest that it would probably have already fallen to Earth. As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analysed data from orbit. But it remains unclear when and where exactly it dropped down. The spacecraft was originally made to land on Venus, and was built to survive the extreme atmosphere there. But it was hit by technical problems during its launch, and got stuck in orbit around Earth. For the 53 years since, it has been floating around our planet until its orbit collided with the Earth. Since the spacecraft was made to land on the hot and high-pressure planet of Venus, experts have speculated that it could have survived the descent through Earth's atmosphere, rather than breaking up like many other uncontrolled descents. But experts said it was likely to come down over water, covering most of the world, or a desolate region. The odds of it slamming into a populated area are 'infinitesimally small', said University of Colorado Boulder scientist Marcin Pilinski. 'While we can anticipate that most of this object will not burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry, it may be severely damaged on impact,' Mr Pilinski said. By Friday, all indications pointed to a re-entry early on Saturday morning, US Eastern Time, give or take several hours. While space debris trackers around the world converged in their forecasts, it was still too soon to know exactly when and where the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 would come down. That uncertainty was due to potential solar activity and the spacecraft's old condition. Its parachutes were expected to be useless by now and its batteries long dead. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek estimated the impact speed at 150mph if the spacecraft remains intact. The Soviets launched Kosmos 482 in 1972, intending to send it to Venus to join other spacecraft in their Venera programme. But a rocket malfunction left this one stuck in orbit around Earth. Gravity kept tugging on it and was expected to finally cause its doom. Spherical in shape, the spacecraft – 3ft (one metre) across and packing more than 1,000lb (495kg) – will be the last piece of Kosmos 482 to fall from the sky. All the other parts plummeted within a decade.
Irish Independent
13-05-2025
- Science
- Irish Independent
Russian spacecraft ‘probably just fell to Earth' after 53 years orbiting, experts say
©UK Independent Today at 21:30 An out-of-control Russian spacecraft has probably plummeted to Earth, after 53 years stuck in orbit, experts say. In recent weeks, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 has been making an uncontrolled approach towards Earth. Experts have been tracking it since – though they noted that it was very unlikely that it would land over a populated era.
