You may want to duck or at least look up at 6:39:35 p.m. this evening.
That’s the exact moment two defunct satellites will zip past each other at 32,800 mph.
A satellite-tracking company predicts the two satellites, one dating back to 1967, will pass between 50 and 100 feet apart but, they are NOT expected to collide.
1/ We are monitoring a close approach event involving IRAS (13777), the decommissioned space telescope launched in 1983, and GGSE-4 (2828), an experimental US payload launched in 1967.
— LeoLabs, Inc. (@LeoLabs_Space) January 27, 2020
(IRAS image credit: NASA) pic.twitter.com/13RtuaOAHb
LeoLabs, says if they do crash, there would be thousands of pieced of new debris that would stay in orbit for decades and it could threaten and satellites operating near the collision.
Furthermore, the pieces would spread out and form a debris belt around the Earth.
The near-miss is expected to happen over Pittsburgh.