Citizens of planet Earth can expect a rare sight in the sky sometime over this weekend. China's first space station - Tiangong One - is in a decaying orbit and is expected to make a spectacular re-entry as gravity returns it to Earth.
This is indeed a major piece of space junk. It is as big as a bus and it weighs several tonnes. If the re-entry is at night we can expect a " shooting star " experience as it arcs across the sky in a blaze of burning light, but re-entry in daylight will still be highly visible, and both will be preceded by a sonic boom.
Much will be burned away by the intense heat but what reaches the surface of Earth will pose a danger. The citizens of this planet face the prospect of death should they have the misfortune to be struck by this falling object, but the chance of that happening is remote.
A greater portion of the surface of this planet is water and a lot of the land mass is lightly inhabited. The chance of this piece of space junk hitting a living person is about the same as winning Lotto with the same numbers over three successive draws.
We may remember the unease when America's Skylab posed a re-entry threat back in 1979. The light show was seen by many people but the point of impact was luckily in a remote area of Western Australia - and it is possibly legend that the only casualty was a rabbit.
The best the boffins can give us is that Tiangong One will fall to Earth within the time frame of midnight this Saturday to early morning on Monday. Just where that may be is anyones guess, but its trajectory has it passing over Australia many times and so a light show in our sky is a possibility.
So - enjoy the light show and disregard the danger. We can all expect to still be alive to return to work when this Easter break ends.
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