At the start of this week, the European Space Agency’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite (GOCE) fell to Earth. This is what it looked like as it happened.
https://gizmodo.com/falling-soon-through-a-sky-near-you-1459629975
This image was captured by Bill Chater from the Falklands at 9:20 pm local time on November 11th. Bill explained that “driving southwards at dusk, it appeared with bright smoke trail and split in 2 before splitting again into more and going on north.”
It doesn’t look much from this distance, perhaps, but the satellite weighed in at 2,000 pounds before it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Now gone for good, GOCE spent four years mapping Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. So long, GOCE; you made some very pretty maps. [ESA]
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-earths-gravity-field-looks-5575501
Image by Bill Chater
