The (photo investigation) unit within Agence France-Presse revealed the truth about the images circulating of a strange object in the skies of Iraq, and its publishers claimed that it documents the moment the Chinese missile (Long March 5B) passed over Iraq.
Chinese missile
Social media pages circulated an image whose publishers claimed to show the Chinese missile passing over Iraq, but the image was in fact published since 2020 as a strange object that appeared in the Iraqi sky.
The picture shows a red luminous object in a dark sky.
The accompanying commentary said: (Urgent now, the Chinese missile passed through Iraqi airspace several times a short while ago, noting that it weighs 21 tons.)
This is in reference to the "Long March 5B" missile launched by China last week.
The Tianhe (Heavenly Harmony) unit, the first of the three components of its CSS space station, was launched into Earth orbit.
The post received hundreds of shares on Facebook and Twitter.
A missile out of control
According to what was signed by the news investigation team at (Agence France Presse), this publication began to be circulated coinciding with the publication of Iraqi and Arab media news about the passage of the Chinese missile out of control over Iraq at dawn Thursday.
Also read: The Chinese missile ignites the Arab world and tops the trend: it passed for only minutes over Egypt, and the Syrians watched it
These missiles usually place their payloads in the earth's orbit and return to land in a predetermined place, or they burn and disintegrate in the earth's atmosphere.
However, the Chinese missile got out of control and is currently orbiting the Earth, and it is not yet known where or when its debris will fall towards the Earth, until the preparation of this report.
According to space scientists and specialized institutions, the debris is likely to fall on a populated area.
However, the greatest probability is that it will fall in an uninhabited place, such as the oceans that cover more than two-thirds of the earth.
Also, a large part of the debris burns in the atmosphere and only some pieces reach the ground.
An old photo
However, the photo has been in circulation for months and has nothing to do with the Chinese missile.
Inspection through search engines led to the same image, published on Iraqi websites on January 17, 2020, as a UFO in the sky of the Iraqi governorate of Dhi Qar.
And once it was published in the past years, it is certain that it has nothing to do with the Chinese “Long March 5B” missile.
The Long March 5B Rocket
The out of control Chinese "Long March 5B" missile caused panic among the world's population and those interested in space science, amid speculation about the date and location of its fall to Earth.
The Chinese missile will enter the atmosphere
CNN published a report about the out-of-control Chinese missile, which is expected to enter the earth's atmosphere at the end of this week, and said that it is not the first time that where it happens.
The report began by recalling similar incidents that occurred previously, and explained that "debris from space reached Earth several times, most recently last year."
The good news is that debris falling towards the ground, while worrying, does not pose a significant safety threat. "It's not the end of the world," said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University.
The Chinese missile raised new questions about space debris, the uncontrolled return to Earth, and the necessary precautions to be taken in such cases.
Chinese rocket debris will burn in the atmosphere
And about how uncontrolled space debris collides with the Earth, most of the pieces will burn in the Earth's atmosphere before reaching the surface, but the larger parts of objects, such as missiles, It can enter through the atmosphere and reach populated areas.
Last year, one of the largest uncontrolled pieces of space debris passed directly over Los Angeles and New York City's Central Park before crash-landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The debris weighs about 20 tons, and it is an empty part of the Chinese rocket, and it is considered the largest piece of space that has fallen without control on Earth since 1991 and the fourth largest piece in the world that has fallen to Earth.
The largest pieces of the remains of the Chinese rocket were from NASA's "Skylab space station" in 1979, a piece of the Skylab rocket in 1975, and the Soviet Union's "Salyut 7" space station in 1991. The space shuttle "Columbia" can be added. From 2003 to that list since NASA lost control of it upon its descent and return to Earth.
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