LONDON: An old NASA satellite that studied the sun for more than a decade fell to Earth over the Sahara Desert, the space agency reported Thursday.
NASA officials said they have received no reports of damage or injury so far from the reentry, which occurred in the wee hours of the morning in Sudan.
Most of the 660-pound (300-kilogram) satellite, called Rhessi, was expected to burn up while plummeting through the atmosphere. But experts anticipated some pieces would survive and slam into the ground.
Launched in 2002, Rhessi was turned off in 2018 following a communication problem. Before falling silent, it studied solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun.
Rhessi stands for the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager.
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Old NASA satellite plunges to Earth over Sudanese part of Sahara Desert
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Old NASA satellite plunges to Earth over Sudanese part of Sahara Desert
- NASA officials said they have received no reports of damage or injury
Passengers flee snake at Australian train station
Commuters jumped in fright as a snake slithered across a city train platform in Australia, proving nowhere is safe from the nation’s creepy-crawlies.
Footage showed the small serpent wriggling down the platform in the city of Sydney on Sunday night.
One woman abandons her bike after spotting the snake and flees in the opposite direction, while other passengers anxiously huddle together on the platform.
The impasse is solved when one passenger plucks up the courage to hoist the snake by its tail and drop it over the hand railing.
“A passenger who got off a train took it upon himself to handle the intruder,” said government agency Transport for New South Wales, adding that “the man did not flinch.”
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