The rocket Apollo fell to the Ground

A solid chunk of space debris under the code WT1190F, representing a part of the spent stage of the rocket, most likely, one of the American Apollo missions, crashed to the Ground. The tragedy happened in the southern part of the island of Sri Lanka.

According to the astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who appeared in the Observatory in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, WT1190F the object entered the upper atmosphere about 9 hours 18 minutes Moscow time, moving with a speed of 39 thousand miles per hour. As us scientist reports, the research for falling object was hampered by thick clouds and bad weather conditions in the capital of the island nation.

"Heavenly body" a few meters long the result high speeds are unable to burn completely in the atmosphere of our planet. Professionals report that in the southern part of the island was a small shower of debris. The bulk of them fell into the waters of the Indian ocean.

Surprisingly, for the first time in history, astrologers have turned out to calculate in advance the time and place of the fall of the cosmic body to Earth. In this regard, experts of the European space Agency (ESA) used the fall to Earth of a fragment of spent rocket stages from the mission "Apollo" as a simulation of the asteroid, similar to the Chelyabinsk meteorite, for working out prevention systems and calculate the line of motion of flight.

Object WT1190F was opened 2 years ago, in early February 2013. However, this "artificial satellite" of the Earth in a short time was lost, and astrologers felt that he no longer will return to the vicinity of our planet. Was now, the chip is rotated on a fairly eccentric orbit, the far end of which is located beyond the orbit of the moon. Such astrologers watch had never.

The alleged "parent" of this object can be 2 very old interplanetary mission. WT1190F may be a fragment of the upper stage of the American probe Lunar Prospector, sent to the moon in 1998 as part of "Apollo" or the Japanese Mars probe, Nozomi, flew past the companion of the Earth, about the same time.

sections: Accidents, World News