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Clearing the Browser Tabs — Look to the Skies Tuesday Edition

Jimmie | September 20, 2011 | Comments (0)

If you happen to be walking around outside any time between, say, today and September 23, you should probably keep your head up. NASA has reported that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, a climate research satellite, will fall to Earth. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem — the planet gets pelted with debris all the time, manmade and otherwise — but there are a few exceptions in this case.

First, the satellite is huge. It’s about the size of a school bus and weighs well over 12,000 pounds. Most things that hit our atmosphere burn up long before they reach the ground (the Tunguska blast appears to be one notable exception). The UARS won’t do that. NASA expects that about 26 large pieces with an aggregate weight of almost 1,200 pounds will survive re-entry. The largest piece could weigh 300 pounds. That is a lot of debris.

Second, the impacts could strike anywhere in a 500-mile long strip from northern Canada to southern South America. NASA can’t narrow down there the pieces might land, and it won’t know anything for certain until about 2 hours before they hit the ground. The agency puts the risk that a human will be struck at 1 in 3,200 which seems like long odds, but it’s very low compared to what I would normally expect. It’s not a coin toss but it’s not like playing the lottery either.

So even though you probably won’t get hit by a chunk of metal from above, it wouldn’t hurt to follow the story and keep your eyes upwards once in a while, at least until Sunday.

Today is Tuesday so, assuming I’m not brained by a satellite control module, The Delivery will kick off at the customary 9:30 PM Eastern time. The pre-show warmup has gotten more fun over the past couple or three weeks, and if you decide you want to show up a little early, you might even hear singing. Who knows?

And now, links!

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