China's Space Station Will Soon Crash On Earth & It Contains A Toxic, Cancer-Causing Chemical
20 January, 2018
It seems like a plot straight out of a thriller space movie, but one that may not have a happy ending. A rogue Chinese space station is slowly spiralling down to earth, where it may cause a lot of mayhem on impact.
How bad is this development? Well, the Tiangong-1 Chinese space station is carrying a highly toxic, cancer-causing chemical onboard, and experts watching its downward spiral don't yet know where it will hit the earth.
Aerospace agencies from around the world are monitoring the doomed Chinese space craft's descent, which has been travelling out of control since September 2017. The European Space Agency predicts its atmospheric re-entry window between March 17 and April 21. Tiangong-1 will burn as a bright fireball as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, still 10 to 40 per cent of the satellite is expected to survive the crash.
Tiangong-1 is also expected to contain the dangerous chemical hydrazine. The highly toxic and corrosive chemical is used in rocket fuel and long-term exposure to hydrazine is believed to cause cancer in humans, according to a Dailymail report. Long-term exposure to hydrazine can lead to some serious consequences, as it can damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system in humans.
And all of this is currently spinning around the globe like a huge ticking time bomb. Chinese experts believe that there's a higher chance of someone winning the lottery than anyone getting harmed by debris falling from Tiangong-1 as it falls down to earth.
Still, no one wants to take that chance. Hopefully, by April, we'll know the official crash trajectory of Tiangong-1.