New Delhi

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released photos which appear to show a fiery phoenix falling to Earth. The photo, actually is of its Aeolus satellite burning up due to friction with Earth's environment. The photo was taken during its 're-entry'.

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A 're-entry' is when a decommissioned satellite enters the atmosphere at very high speed and burns up.

The satellite in question, the Aeolus satellite, was launched in 2018. Aeolus was equipped with powerful laser technology which made it capable of observing wind on global scale.

The satellite had a five-year mission during which Aeolus helped improve weather forecasts and climate models. The satellite retired in July this year. After its mission was over, Aeolus became just another piece of space junk orbiting around the Earth.

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The space around Earth is choc-a-block with literally thousands of active satellites and a large number of defunct ones which contribute to the growing problem of space debris. The defunct satellites always pose of threat of collision with active ones and rendering them useless. The more time defunct satellites remain in orbit, greater is the chance of such collisions and other complications.

To avoid such a scene due to Aeolus, the ESA carried out what is known as 'assisted re-entry'. Instead of waiting for Aeolus to plummet towards the Earth on its own, the space agency gave little 'nudges' to the satellite in a manoeuvre called de-orbiting. Gravity took over then and the satellite was toast as it fell through the atmosphere.

The assisted re-entry enabled ESA to map where exactly remains of satellite would end up. Though the satellites burn up completely during re-entry, there is always a small chance of some piece of machinery crashing on Earth unburnt. And if this happens in populated areas, there is definitely a risk of civilian injuries or even deaths.

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"By turning Aeolus's natural, uncontrolled re-entry into an assisted one, and choosing the best reentry orbit, the already very small risk from any surviving fragments landing near populated areas was made a further 150 times less risky," ESA said.

Additionally, the assisted re-entry shortened the period Aeolus would have remained in orbit around the Earth, in a defunct condition, potentially posing threat to active satellites.

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