Space Junk: Scientists fear debris is reaching tipping point

News that another satellite will hit the earth in October has set the Chicken Lickens squawking. Mark Evans assesses if we should be worried

DEPENDING on the version you read, her name was Henny Penny or Chicken Licken and she was the one in the story who sparked fear among the other animals by shouting “The sky is falling!” after an acorn fell on her head.

There were a lot of Henny Pennys running around last month before one of Nasa’s acorns — a six tonne satellite called UARS — re-entered the atmosphere and fell to Earth. The internet was ablaze with the chatter on where the bus-sized metal hulk would land, and the odds of it killing someone. Headlines ranged from the sober (‘Doomed satellite to hit Earth’), to the amusing (‘Duck! Nasa satellite to crash on Earth’), to the downright silly (‘The sky is falling as UARS drops in’).