A disused satellite is crashing back down to Earth and it could hit us

What goes up must come down.

A disused satellite is falling through the sky - and its destination is Earth.

Nasa said the retired Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager spacecraft (RHESSI), will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday 19 April after over two decades in orbit.

While most of the satellite is expected to burn up during its descent, some parts have a chance of breaking through - but don't worry too much.

“The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low — approximately 1 in 2,467,” the agency said in a statement.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Launched in 2002, RHESSI has observed solar flares and coronal mass ejections to study the sun. The 660 pound satellite was decommissioned in 2018 due to “communications difficulties."

It is not the only satellite that has come back home. In January, Nasa announced a 38-year-old satellite weighing 5,600 pounds would be returning to Earth, after Chinese rocket debris reentered the atmosphere in 2022.

Meanwhile, Nasa estimated in 2021 that some 27,000 pieces of space junk are floating in orbit, and some other debris that remains “too small to be tracked.”

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.