There’s a lot of stuff up in space, and occasionally some of it comes back down.
A NASA spacecraft plunged out of orbit Wednesday, and fortunately it did so without hurting anyone. Most objects like this burn up in the atmosphere, which is a very good thing. It would have been a terrible day if you were waiting on your Wendy’s Baconator and got flattened before that first glorious bite.
The tricky part is that it’s nearly impossible to predict exactly where falling space debris will land or how many pieces it might break into. When something reenters the atmosphere, it can scatter fragments across a large area. Thankfully, Earth is a very big place, and most of it is either ocean or sparsely populated land. That means the vast majority of space junk lands somewhere that nobody ever notices.
Spacecraft Falling Debris Risk Remains Extremely Low For Lubbock
So what does this mean for the typical Lubbock, Texas resident just going about their day, battling the wind and seasonal allergies? In the case of that particular spacecraft, the odds of someone being hit were about 1 in 4,200 — or roughly 0.024%.
Read More: What Does Lubbock’s Happiness Ranking Reveal About Life There?
Of course, there’s always some amount of space debris orbiting above us, from tiny fragments to larger pieces of retired satellites. Future reentries could still happen from time to time, but the chances of any of it actually clobbering you while you’re headed to the gym or grabbing lunch remain incredibly small.
In other words, you’re far more likely to worry about Lubbock wind than falling spacecraft.
58 Photos That Will Change The Way You Look at Lubbock
Lubbock gets joked about a lot — flat, dusty, windy — but when you see it from above, especially at sunset or night, it’s actually pretty beautiful.
Gallery Credit: Chrissy Covington
Top 10 Things To Expect In Lubbock, Texas
Gallery Credit: Nessmania