You Have A 1 in 2,467 Chance Of Being Hit By A Sattelite Today

NASA's retired Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft is expected to fall to Earth sometime today or tomorrow, 21 years after it was launched.

From 2002 to 2018, the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager observed things like solar flares and coronal mass ejections from its low-Earth orbit, giving scientists a hand in understanding how the powerful bursts of energy are created.

According to NASA, as of Monday, April 17th, the Department of Defense began predicting the 660-pound spacecraft will reenter the atmosphere sometime Wednesday, April 19th.

The satellite is expected to reenter the atmosphere at approximately 8:30pm CST on Wednesday, April 19th, +/- 16 hours. So starting at 4:30am, keep an eye out on the skies.

NASA expects most of the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere during its reentry, but some components are expected to survive the fall. The risk of anyone having harm come to them on Earth from this piece of space junk is approximately 1 in 2,467.

The exact area that the satellite is expected to land is also unknown, so it's sort of an "it could land anywhere at any time, but it is going to land somewhere and someone could be standing there" type of deal.

Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager scanned over 100,000 X-Ray events in its time functioning, allowing scientists to study the energetic particles that come from solar flares.

16 years of use came to an end when RHESSI had communications difficulties with the spacecraft.

Read more at NASA