A long-forgotten Soviet-era space probe, launched more than five decades ago with the ambitious goal of reaching Venus, is finally returning to Earth—in a fiery plunge through the atmosphere. The spacecraft, known as Cosmos 482, has been orbiting Earth since 1972 after a failed mission to Venus. Now, experts predict it will reenter the planet’s atmosphere between May 8 and 12, with debris potentially landing anywhere along a vast stretch of the globe.
The spacecraft was intended to study Venus’s harsh atmosphere and surface, but a rocket malfunction left it stranded in Earth’s orbit. Since then, the derelict probe has circled the planet in a slowly decaying orbit, gradually losing altitude due to atmospheric drag.
The potential impact zone spans a wide belt across the globe, stretching from Canada and Russia down to the southern tip of South America. However, the exact time and location of reentry remain uncertain due to atmospheric fluctuations.
The likelihood of debris causing harm is extremely low, since the Earth’s surface is mostly ocean, reducing the chance of fragments hitting populated areas. Still, space enthusiasts and astronomers are closely tracking the probe’s final moments, as its reentry could produce a spectacular fireball visible from the ground.
