Washington, Oct 23 (ANI): A 20-year-old German space telescope weighing more than two tons re-entered the Earth's atmosphere early Sunday, officials said.
According to the German Aerospace Centre, the 2.7-tonne Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, slammed into Earth's atmosphere sometime between 01:45 GMT (6:15 IST) and 02:15 GMT (6:45 IST) on Sunday.
Scientists are however are yet to confirm where exactly the doomed satellite fell on Earth.
"There is currently no confirmation if pieces of debris have reached Earth's surface," Space.com quoted Andreas Schuetz, spokesman for the German Aerospace Center, as saying.
Scientists were no longer able to communicate with the dead satellite and it must have travelled some 20,000km in the final 30 minutes before entering the atmosphere, Schuetz said.
Most parts of the minivan-sized satellite were expected to burn up during re-entry into the atmosphere but up to 30 fragments weighing 1.7 metric tons could crash into earth at speeds up to 450km/h.
Based on ROSAT's orbital path, these fragments could be scattered along a swath of the planet about 80 km wide, officials have said.
ROSAT Is the second satellite to fall uncontrolled from space within a month.
Nasa's UARS satellite crashed back to Earth in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean, north-east of the Samoan Islands on September 24. (ANI)
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