The Challenger Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), which launched in 1984 onboard the shuttle, has just “returned” to earth, almost completely burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere over the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, NASA said.
While in Earth orbit for nearly 40 years, ERBS has made significant contributions to the study of the stratosphere’s ability to absorb solar radiation, as well as to the assessment of human activity on the ozone layer.
According to NASA’s calculation, a value of about 2500 kg should not have been completely burned out by the fall, but even in this case, the probability of causing any manifestation of harm was very unlikely – about 1:9400.
ERBS has exceeded its original two-year work life. Today, with the help of its “successor” – the SAGE III-ISS instrument, installed outside the ISS, it is calculated how the light of the Moon and the Sun is detected when passing through the origin of the Earth and what state the planet’s ozone layer is in.
Source: Tech Cult
