As expected, mysterious space junk dubbed WT1190F fell back to the Earth and zoomed past the sky as bright fireballs, Friday, Nov. 13.
The object, which is approximately three to six feet in length re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) and burned up off the coast of Sri Lanka, where the debris also took its final crash.
The space junk was all aglow and was bright enough to illuminate in the daytime sky; however, Earth-bound onlookers did not fully enjoy the experience as it was cloudy, thus, blocking the entire glory of the show. Good thing space researchers set up stations above the ground to observe and document the anticipated event.
Among the groups that were able to capture images of the WT1190F from the a Gulfstream jet include the International Astronomical Center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Space Agency and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute.
In 2013, WT1190F was initially observed by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey. The object orbited the Earth for a couple of years and re-entered the atmosphere as projected. The space junk travelled at approximately 24,000 miles per hour right before noontime.
Experts from the European Space Agency's NEO Coordination Center (NEOCC) and the European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Italy confirmed that WT1190F was an abandoned rocket part, revolving around the Earth every three weeks in non-circular orbit. Using various cameras and equipment, the flying experts were able to measure the object.
"NEO experts have used observational data to estimate the object's density, which turns out to be much less than that of the solid rocky material that comprises many asteroids," said Detlef Koschny from the ESA's Space Situational Awareness program department before the fallback.
Koschny added that the density is in truth compatible with the characteristics of a hollow shell, like a spent upper stage or part of a stage of a rocket body.
Experts think that the re-entry of WT1190F to the Earth will help create models of debris fallback and contribute to the improvement of tracking techniques of asteroids or objects that may enter the Earth's atmosphere in the future.
