The chances of a satellite falling from space and hitting you are almost zero. It's extremely unlikely and not something to worry about.

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Even though the number of satellites in space has gone up sharply in recent years, today’s satellites are designed to be much safer when they return to Earth. Most of them are built using lightweight materials that burn up easily when re-entering the atmosphere. They’re also programmed to fall in a controlled way, usually aiming for empty parts of the ocean or remote land areas.

That said, a small amount of space junk does still make it to the ground. For example, leftover parts from China’s Long March rockets have fallen back to Earth recently. But these are rare cases.

NASA reports that over the past 50 years, an average of just one piece of space debris falls to Earth each day. So far, no one has been seriously injured or killed by any of it.

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To put things into perspective, hearing about one piece of falling space junk each day might sound alarming. But consider this: according to the BBC, at least three small non-commercial plane crashes happen daily. And yet, accidents where someone is actually hit by a falling plane are incredibly rare.

Planes are considered more dangerous because they usually remain mostly intact during a crash and often still carry fuel, which can make the impact more severe. On the other hand, most space debris is quite small—just bits of metal or carbon fibre—and burns up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.

Also, the height from which space debris falls doesn’t really affect how fast it hits the Earth. That’s because it quickly reaches its maximum falling speed—called terminal velocity—well before landing. So whether it drops from 300 km (around 186 miles) or just 10 km (about 6 miles), it hits the ground at nearly the same speed.

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What is Terminal Velocity?

Terminal velocity is the fastest speed something can reach when it’s falling through air. At first, gravity pulls the object down and it gets faster. But soon, air pushes back. When the upward force of air resistance equals the downward pull of gravity, the object stops speeding up and falls at a steady speed—this is terminal velocity.

Example: Think of a skydiver. When they first jump, they fall faster and faster. But after a while, air resistance balances out gravity, and they start falling at a steady speed. That’s terminal velocity. It’s the reason skydivers don’t keep accelerating endlessly.

Now, back to falling space debris. Spacecraft fly across a much wider and more even area of Earth compared to planes, which usually fly over crowded towns and cities. To show how little space people actually take up—if everyone in the world stood spaced apart in open areas (like how satellites are spread in orbit), they would only cover about 0.0002 per cent of the Earth’s surface.

So even if every bit of space junk falling from the sky were deadly, it would still miss people 99.9998per cent of the time. Statistically, this means it might cause just one death every 1,300 years.

Bottom line? The chances of being hit by space debris are so low that you’re much more likely to stumble while walking than ever be hurt by something falling from space.

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.