Retired Solar Imaging Spacecraft Predicted to Strike Earth: What We Know

NASA has announced that a retired solar imaging spacecraft called the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) is expected to reenter the Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday night.

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The Defense Department predicts that some parts of the 660-pound spacecraft will survive the reentry and strike Earth.

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NASA has stated that the risk of harm to anyone on Earth is low at approximately 1 in 2,467.

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RHESSI was launched in 2002 to explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy releases in solar flares.

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The spacecraft's work enabled scientists to learn more about the underlying physics of how powerful bursts of energy occur.

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RHESSI's imaging spectrometer became the first-ever mission to record gamma-ray images and high-energy X-ray images of solar flares.

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The spacecraft's activities included imaging the high-energy electrons that carry a large part of the energy released in solar flares.

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NASA has stated that RHESSI's data provided vital clues about solar flares and their associated coronal mass ejections.

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