![]() ![]() "The statistical risk to any one person of being struck by falling space debris is so low that a colleague of mine jokes that if reentry predictions put his house directly under the path, he’d go out with a camera and watch," Sorge said. The latitude of Indianapolis is 39.7 degrees, but again, the chances of any debris falling here, or any populated area, are highly unlikely. ![]() ![]() That range means the rocket's reentry could be as far north as Chicago, New York City, Rome and Beijing or as south as New Zealand and Chile, according to The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center. But "what makes this reentry particularly noteworthy is that it will occur between 41.5 degree north and 41.5 degree south latitudes, where the vast bulk of the world’s population lives," Marlon Sorge, of Aerospace's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies, told The Aerospace Corporation. With about 70 percent of the Earth's surface covered in water, the chances of it hitting a land mass are slim, and a densely populated city even lower, according to scientists. USA TODAY Visual Glimpse: A Chinese rocket is hurtling back to Earth. Scientists don't know the exact time yet, and the location “cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” according to a Pentagon statement to USA TODAY earlier this week. Launched on April 29, a 21-metric-ton portion of the Long March 5B - one of China's largest and heaviest spacecraft - is expected to plunge back in an "uncontrolled reentry." Over the past week, space experts and novices alike have been discussing the potential debris and impacts from the crash landing. While this rocket is on its way out, another one is hurtling back from space now and is expected to make a splash this weekend. NASA will offer live coverage of the Black Brant XII mission online beginning at 7:30 p.m. ![]()
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