Follow Up of the Day: NASA’s UARS satellite fell into the southern Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the northwestern U.S., according to new Air Force calculations.
The satellite entered the atmosphere above American Samoa, but the debris itself started hitting the water about 300 miles to the northeast. Experts say about two dozen pieces of the satellite hit over a 500-mile radius.
Although scientists on Saturday thought pieces of UARS may have hit the northwestern U.S., NASA says the satellite actually entered the atmosphere 10 to 15 minutes earlier than expected, which made a huge difference in where the debris hit.
The space agency referred questions about the new calculations to the Air Force, which said it used “better computer models” generated after the landing to pinpoint where the satellite actually landed.
[popsci]
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