A retired Nasa satellite that studied the Sun for more than a decade fell to Earth over the Sahara Desert, the space agency has reported.
Nasa officials said they have received no reports of damage or injury so far from the re-entry, which occurred in the early hours of the morning in Sudan at approximately 21.3 degrees north latitude and 26 degrees east longitude.
Most of the 300kg satellite, called Rhessi, was expected to burn up while plummeting through the atmosphere, but experts anticipated some pieces would survive and fall to Earth.
Before re-entry, Nasa said the risk of injury to those on the ground was ‘low’ at 2,467-1, but did not reveal where it expected the satellite to land.
Rhessi, which stands for the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, was launched in 2002 to study solar flares.
It was switched off in 2018 due to communication issues, but not before it had recorded more than 100,000 x-ray events, helping scientists understand more about the solar flares that can blast Earth.
On its mission, the agency wrote: ‘Data from Rhessi provided vital clues about solar flares and their associated coronal mass ejections. These events release the energy equivalent of billions of megatons of TNT into the solar atmosphere within minutes and can have effects on Earth, including the disruption of electrical systems.’
On average, 200-400 pieces of space junk re-enter Earth’s atmosphere every year.
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