{"id":77253,"date":"2018-03-29T16:43:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T23:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/that-chinese-space-station-hurtling-toward-earth-could-hit-one-of-these-u-s-cities"},"modified":"2018-03-29T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T23:43:15","slug":"that-chinese-space-station-hurtling-toward-earth-could-hit-one-of-these-u-s-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/that-chinese-space-station-hurtling-toward-earth-could-hit-one-of-these-u-s-cities","title":{"rendered":"That Chinese Space Station Hurtling Toward Earth Could Hit One Of These U.S. Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/that-chinese-space-station-hurtling-toward-earth-could-hit-one-of-these-u-s-cities.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Well, here\u2019s some terrifying news: There\u2019s a Chinese space station out in the galaxy that is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/science-and-health\/2018\/3\/28\/17172086\/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-falling-earth-tracking-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hurtling towards Earth<\/a>, and it is expected to hit the planet on or around Apr. 1, 2018. There\u2019s no stopping it, and scientists have stated that they really don\u2019t have much control over it either. On top of that, it could either cause a lot of damage or it could do almost nothing. In other words, it\u2019s a very unclear situation! The question on everyone\u2019s mind is an important one: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/science-and-health\/2018\/3\/28\/17172086\/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-falling-earth-tracking-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">where is the Chinese space station going to crash<\/a>? Do you need to be worried about being destroyed by a flying space station <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bustle.com\/p\/whats-closed-on-easter-sunday-heres-how-to-plan-accordingly-51005\">on Easter Sunday<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the deal: in 2016, China lost control of their first space station, called Tiangong-1, which is about the size of a school bus (so, yes, it\u2019s very large). According to Vox, China had once been planning on trying to give the space station <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/science-and-health\/2018\/3\/28\/17172086\/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-falling-earth-tracking-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a controlled descent to Earth<\/a> so that we didn\u2019t all have to worry about having large pieces of it fall on or around our homes. That\u2019s when things got more out of control: the space station malfunctioned, for reasons we still don\u2019t really know. Due to \u201corbital decay\u201d (which is defined as \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.actforlibraries.org\/causes-of-orbital-decay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the process of prolonged reduction<\/a> in the altitude of a satellite\u2019s orbit.\u201d So, essentially, it\u2019s when objects enter the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and burn up), the space station has been heading towards Earth since it went off on its own.<\/p>\n<p>The time has now come for that space station to hit Earth. It is said to be about 124 miles above the Earth, and is expected to crash through the atmosphere <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esa.int\/rocketscience\/2018\/03\/26\/tiangong-1-frequently-asked-questions-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on or around Apr. 1,<\/a> according to the European Space Agency. The good news is that a lot of it will burn up in the atmosphere. The bad news is that there will still be some heavy pieces that get through and hit the ground. Also bad news: we can\u2019t control any of it. Oh, and no one knows where it will land.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bustle.com\/p\/where-is-the-chinese-space-station-going-to-crash-these-cities-might-be-in-its-path-8643950\">https:\/\/www.bustle.com\/p\/where-is-the-chinese-space-station-...th-8643950<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, here\u2019s some terrifying news: There\u2019s a Chinese space station out in the galaxy that is hurtling towards Earth, and it is expected to hit the planet on or around Apr. 1, 2018. There\u2019s no stopping it, and scientists have stated that they really don\u2019t have much control over it either. On top of that, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}