We’re sure you’ve got plenty of good reasons to be worried in 2018.
Now there’s one more worry to add to your teetering fear pile.
A out-of-control Chinese satellite is about to smash into Earth and is expected to hit us within the next few months, with impact likely to take place at the beginning of March.
As if that wasn’t scary enough, it’s now been claimed the Tiangong-1 space station is packed full of a toxic and corrosive chemical called hydrazine.
This nasty stuff is used in rocket fuel and long-term exposure is believed to cause cancer in humans.
It is being carried aboard the Tiangong-1, which is hurtling towards Earth and due to hit in March.
Although most of the craft will burn up when it ploughs into the atmosphere, between 10 and 40 percent of its mass could survive and plunge to Earth.
It will probably fall into the ocean and Britain is not believed to be in the firing line.
In a statement, a spokesman from Aerospace, a space research non-profit based in California, wrote: ‘Potentially, there may be a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine on board the spacecraft that could survive re-entry.
‘For your safety, do not touch any debris you may find on the ground nor inhale vapors it may emit.’
Hydrazine is generally found as a colourless, oily liquid, although it can sometimes take the form of a white crystalline powder.
Short exposure to can result in irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat as well as dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures and even coma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
On September 14, 2016, China made an official statement predicting Tiangong-1 would reenter the atmosphere in the latter half of 2017.
It’s now believed the collision will take place sometime in March 2018 and the out of control spacecraft could hit Spain, Italy, Turkey, India and parts of the US.
More: UK
Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office, said there was no telling where it could fall.
She said: ‘The date, time and geographic footprint of the re-entry can only be predicted with large uncertainties.
‘Even shortly before re-entry, only a very large time and geographical window can be estimated.’
Although you probably don’t want to be standing anywhere near Tiangong-1 when it crashes to Earth, it may give you some comfort to know that falling man-made space debris has never killed a human here on Earth.
We’re sure you’ve got plenty of good reasons to be worried in 2018.
Now there’s one more worry to add to your teetering fear pile.
A out-of-control Chinese satellite is about to smash into Earth and is expected to hit us within the next few months, with impact likely to take place at the beginning of March.
As if that wasn’t scary enough, it’s now been claimed the Tiangong-1 space station is packed full of a toxic and corrosive chemical called hydrazine.
This nasty stuff is used in rocket fuel and long-term exposure is believed to cause cancer in humans.
It is being carried aboard the Tiangong-1, which is hurtling towards Earth and due to hit in March.
Although most of the craft will burn up when it ploughs into the atmosphere, between 10 and 40 percent of its mass could survive and plunge to Earth.
It will probably fall into the ocean and Britain is not believed to be in the firing line.
In a statement, a spokesman from Aerospace, a space research non-profit based in California, wrote: ‘Potentially, there may be a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine on board the spacecraft that could survive re-entry.
‘For your safety, do not touch any debris you may find on the ground nor inhale vapors it may emit.’
Hydrazine is generally found as a colourless, oily liquid, although it can sometimes take the form of a white crystalline powder.
Short exposure to can result in irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat as well as dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures and even coma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
On September 14, 2016, China made an official statement predicting Tiangong-1 would reenter the atmosphere in the latter half of 2017.
It’s now believed the collision will take place sometime in March 2018 and the out of control spacecraft could hit Spain, Italy, Turkey, India and parts of the US.
More: UK
Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office, said there was no telling where it could fall.
She said: ‘The date, time and geographic footprint of the re-entry can only be predicted with large uncertainties.
‘Even shortly before re-entry, only a very large time and geographical window can be estimated.’
Although you probably don’t want to be standing anywhere near Tiangong-1 when it crashes to Earth, it may give you some comfort to know that falling man-made space debris has never killed a human here on Earth.
