Italian satellite lands in Pacific

The Italian-Dutch BeppoSax space observatory has crashed harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.

The largest fragment would have been about 120 kg

There were fears fragments of the spacecraft might come down on land.

The Italian Space Agency had initially warned 39 countries around the equator, including Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that they could be hit by pieces of the satellite on its uncontrolled re-entry after seven years in orbit.

In the end, the remains of the 1,389-kilogram (3,086-pound) satellite came down into water no closer than 299 kilometres (186 miles) to the northwest of the Galapagos Islands.

The largest fragment to hit the ocean was thought to weigh no more than 120 kg.

BeppoSax was an X-ray observatory which helped astronomers hunt down gamma-ray bursts, colossal flashes of radiation which can, within a few seconds or minutes, match the energy our Sun will produce in its entire lifetime.

Falling junk

Researchers working on BeppoSax found evidence that some of these bursts were linked to the massive explosions of huge stars, or hypernovae, work confirmed by other space observatories, such as Chandra and Hete.

BeppoSax was launched in 1996 and switched off in April last year. The performance of its components had been degrading for some time.

Hundreds of pieces of man-made space junk fall to Earth each year.

On average, one piece of debris of small size comes down every two to three days. One larger size object or intact piece of debris re-enters every 10 to 12 days. These objects could be rocket bodies or old satellites.

Perhaps the most famous re-entry in recent years involved the Mir space station, which came down in the south Pacific.

However, unlike BeppoSax, Mir's descent was controlled, pushed into a defined trajectory by a Progress supply ship.