Fifty years ago, the former, the former Soviet Union started an investigation to Venus. Unless it has never done it. Instead, the rocket engines ended too early and the probe was stuck in the earth orbit. Now it makes the way back to earth.
Venera 8, which was introduced on March 27, 1972, was one of A few of probes that were able to examine the surface of Venus. Four days later it started the second probe, which was cataloged as a cosmos 482 after the season in the orbit.
The probe is estimated on half a ton and is expected to enter the earth’s atmosphere around May 10th, give or take a day and a half New update by Marco Langbroekwho has been pursuing the object for many years.
It is most interesting that this landing (or a re -entry capsule) was built to survive the punishable dense atmosphere of Venus. In contrast to rockets that we enter the atmosphere of the earth again and separate (think of the recent mishaps of Starship), it is unlikely that this will happen with Kosmos 482.
But it is no reason to panic, said Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for the Chandra X-ray center of astrophysics.
“So you basically have something of the size of a small car that plowed into the ground at 240 kilometers per hour,” he said. “Don’t let it overdo it, right?
McDowell is known for its extensive Satellite and rubble database. In fact, it was he who postulated for the first time in 2000, which could be Kosmos 482.
“In 2000 I went through every object in the Norad room object catalog and tried to find out what every object was, all 25,000 of them how there was at the time. And I came across this and went: ‘Ok, that’s something unusual.'”
It was not well known what the object was at the time because the USA and the Soviet Union were in the middle of the Cold War and many things were kept secret.
Where it is expected to fall
Langbroek recently said to Spaceweather.com: “With an orbital tendency of 52 degrees, the cosmos 482 relegation chains over 52 degrees could decrease north and 52 degrees of southern width,” said Langbroek.
This covers a large part of the world in south and medium width.
O’clock | Cosmos 482 relegation forces, October 27, 2020
However, McDowell said that it is more of the ocean because the earth is mainly covered by water.
“The chances … it will be in the sea or in an empty area. But there is … a decent chance that there is people down in an area in which there are people. Even in populated areas, most populated areas are not like people who are packed side by side. So the chances are not injured.”
This is a somewhat familiar story.
In 1979 the empty Skylab area of NASA came back after a few failed attempts to keep them in orbit. Much of them burned in the atmosphere, but rubble fell over the Indian ocean and in parts of Australia.
The big differences between the two are that Skylab was not built in such a way that it withstands the dense atmosphere of Venus, and there were 70 tons, not half a bin.
Faith is now that Kosmos 482 is the relegation casture, but it is not well known.
The start consisted of several elements, including the rocket stage and the service module (which provides electricity, among other things). It was assumed that the service module had entered the earth’s atmosphere in 1981.
McDowell said that there is the possibility that what was referred to as a service module that had entered the atmosphere in 1981 was actually the landing and that Kosmos 482 could be the service module instead. In this case, it would most likely burn in the atmosphere.
However, he said that on the basis of the size and density of the current object, which was referred to as cosmos 482, it is rather the Venus -Lander.
Astrophotographer Ralf Vandeberg in the image of Kosmos 482, which showed a kind of exit. He speculated that it could be the parachute, but that is probably never confirmed because it is burned after re -entry into the atmosphere.
Since this is an uncontrolled re -entry, it is difficult to determine exactly where or when this occurs the atmosphere of the earth.
“Because we don’t know when it will be in a few hours in the best case, we will not be able to say: ‘It will come down here’,” said McDowell. “We have to find out after that.”
