A CHINESE spy satellite which passes over the UK each day could plummet to earth with the speed of a bullet as early as Sunday, British scientists said yesterday.
German scientists at the European Space Agency had predicted the out-of-control satellite would crash at 4am next Tuesday.
However, Dr Richard Crowther, of the Defence Research Agency at Farnborough, said it could be 36 hours either way - and there was a 500-1 chance it would crash on the British Isles.
The satellite, called FSW-1, travels over Britain for five minutes each day as it circles the earth 16 times a day in ever-decreasing circles.
Dr Crowther said: ``It will be the size of a small van and be travelling like a bullet at 300 metres per second. It will probably leave a 20-metre crater.
``We will not know exactly where it will land until about two hours before. It could also land in the southern hemisphere in water or in the land masses of the north.''
The Home Office has asked local authorities to be prepared for a possible disaster but betting specialists believe the odds are it will not land here.
Mr Graham Sharpe of William Hill said: ``It is the same odds as the Loch Ness Monster being found.''
The satellite, which went out of control two years ago, is designed not to break up on entering the earth's atmosphere.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article