A question I have, is how do they know that the thing wasn't disintegrating and busting up for a long enough time upon re-entry that it was indeed spotted in Canada? They're saying the remains cover a 500 mile area in the South Pacific. Maybe parts broke off before that? Idunno. I have no knowledge whatsoever about such things. But it seems to me that reentry into the atmosphere would create stress and pressure on any physical object on a sliding scale, from zero upward with each moment, and thus it seems that there would be a fairly long period of minuscule stress gradually increasing until a piece here and a piece there began breaking off. If that breakup process can happen over a 500 mile span, why not a longer one?
NASA: Satellite fell in south Pacific, not CanadaThat dead NASA satellite fell into what might be the ideal spot — part of the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, U.S. space officials said Tuesday.
New U.S. Air Force calculations put the 6-ton satellite's death plunge early Saturday thousands of miles from northwestern North America, where there were reports of sightings. Instead, it plunged into areas where remote islands dot a vast ocean.
NASA says those new calculations show the 20-year-old satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa. But falling debris as it broke apart didn't start hitting the water for another 300 miles to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island, just after midnight EDT Saturday.
Experts believe about two dozen metal pieces from the bus-sized satellite fell over a 500-mile span.
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On Saturday, scientists said it was possible some pieces could have reached northwestern Canada and claims of sightings in Canada spread on the Internet. But NASA said Tuesday that new calculations show it landed several minutes earlier than they thought, changing the debris field to an entirely different hemisphere...
More linked at the AP...
