As the entire world is facing the wrath of the coronavirus pandemic that apparently originated in China, another threat triggered by the Asian power is now bothering people in various countries. It was on April 29 that China launched a Long March-5B rocket, carrying the first module of its new space station into Earth's orbit. In usual cases, multi-stage rockets fall back before getting into the earth's orbit, the Long March-5B rocket went into the orbit, and has now come back to the atmosphere.
Chinese rocket falling freely to the earth's surface
Even though China has downplayed the dangers, the rocket's 18-tonne main segment is now in a free-fall. As scare looms up, China has assured that the 18-tonne segment will burn up in the earth's atmosphere. However, several space experts believe that large parts will reach the earth's surface, and if it hits the planet's surface, it will cause considerable damage.
Florent Delefie, an astronomer at the Paris-PSL Observatory, told news agency AFP that several big pieces of the rocket could reach the earth's surface. However, he made it clear that this debris will most probably hit the ocean, and the possibility of these parts hitting the land is probably one in a million.
US Military predicts possible impact region
And now, the recent prediction from the US military indicates that the debris will most likely fall in Turkmenistan at around 04.30 AM IST on Sunday, CNN reports.
Earlier, it has been predicted that the rocket might have its free fall in India. And now, with the recent revelation from the US military, it has become almost clear that the debris will not hit the Indian soil.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told AFP that China should rethink their rocket strategies, as events like these could unleash chaos on earth.
"Having a ton of metal shards flying into the Earth at hundreds of kilometers per hour is not good practice, and China should redesign the Long-March 5B missions to avoid this," said McDowell.
