Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Things falling from space...

...but don't freak out.

1. The Chinese space station that is, yes, definitely falling out of the sky. The station weighs much less than Mir - however, Mir was intentionally de-orbited and the Chinese have more-or-less admitted they have lost control of Tiangong-1. The station will hit the atmosphere in March, and they will update on its course closer to the time. Even if it does come down on land (less likely than ocean) the only real danger is that some of the debris may be contaminated with hydrazine, which is toxic. In other words, don't touch the space debris.

2. Yes, an asteroid the size of a semi is whizzing past Earth, well, tonight or tomorrow. It's going to miss, it's within the "hazardous" zone but it's not on a collision course. Even if we're wrong and it does hit, you'd have to be close to it to do damage. If it is at the largest end of the size estimation then it is similar in size to the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk in 2013. If you recall, it damaged a few buildings and broke everyone's windows. And that would be if it directly hit a city. It's more likely to hit the ocean somewhere and make a light show. If it hits. Which it won't.

So, yeah. No need to worry about things falling from space.

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