The sky is falling...

It's not a bird. It's not a plane. And it sure isn't Superman.  A satellite is plummeting toward Earth today.  It's a six ton, school bus sized hunk of flaming metal raging toward our planet's surface uncontrollably.  What?! 

You know what 'they' say:  You Can't Fight Science! You can't.

So basically, from what I've read, and with a hint of my own sarcasm, this is what I understand.  Again- these are my words, not NASA's.  They use much bigger words and more vague language:

There is HUGE satellite, called UARS, that has run out of fuel and has no way to continue to propel itself in space.  This bus-sized hunk of scientific metal has spent 20 years in space collecting all sorts of crazy bacteria and funk we don't know about along the way and is now going to deliver it to earth for us in a raging ball of fire.  Great! 

AND- NASA can only predict that it will hit "between 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south, spanning the width of the world between northern Canada and the tip of South America"  They are saying they have no freaking clue where this beast is headed, but they are totally sure it won't be over North America at the time of re-entry.  Um... isn't Canada in North America?

The article goes on to talk about how the best outcome would be that the pieces of this behemoth land in the ocean or on a remote piece of uninhabited land where no one can be injured.  Seriously?  Duh. Of course that's the best possibly outcome. But in reality, they have no idea where this thing is going to crash down and who will be caught under it.  And they won't know until it's actually happening because our dear satellite is tumbling in space, making it's path harder to predict than if it were smoothly rocketing toward a specified location.

Here's another little snippet of comfort that NASA posted last night- I've highlighted the important pieces:

As of 9:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 110 mi by 115 mi (175 km by 185 km). Re-entry is possible sometime during the afternoon or early evening of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time. The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 hours.

Um... so if it's going to hit this afternoon, and this was posted at 9:30pm last night, and they need 24 hours to predict where it will 're-enter' then are they basically saying that once it hits and we are sure it didn't kill anyone or anything then we'll tell you where it is?  Awesome.

Eyes on the sky today, friends. Be careful. And don't forget NASA's warning- don't touch any pieces you might find.  I'm not sticking around long enough to see them if they come trailing in like a flaming comet.  Here's to hoping for a water landing.

Yours in fascination of space exploration,
Whitney