Don't panic but space junk on Earth collision course

THIS time it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean — but what about next time?

The European Space Agency says one of its research satellites re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere early yesterday on an orbit that passed over Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.

The 1,100kg satellite disintegrated in the atmosphere but about 25% of it — about 275kg of “space junk” — slammed into the Atlantic between Antarctica and South America, a few hundred kilometres from the Falkland Islands, ESA said. It caused no known damage.