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A cursed 53 - class - old Soviet lander presently tumbling back to Earth could be give chase a parachute , new ikon of the spacecraft reveal .
The Kosmos 482 investigation , which launched in 1972 , was built to nation on Venus as part of the former U.S.S.R. ’s Venera program . But a malfunction in the rocket it was mounted on caused the spacecraft to split in two , with the chief body crashing back to Earth in 1981 and the lander subdivision remaining trapped in compass ever since .
The material trailing the descending craft is likely to burn up upon reentry.
Now , after news broke that the lander willfinally give back to our planetsometime around May 10 , satellite trackers have analyze photos of the craft and revealed an strange target trailing behind it .
" Some structure is connected to the capsule,“Ralf Vandebergh , a Dutch stargazer and astrophotographer , wrote on the societal program X. " Not impossible that it ’s the chute , but this is still speculation ! "
Kosmos 482 was built as a sister investigation to Venera 8 , which launched in July 1972 tobecome the second craft(following Venera 7 ) to set ashore on Venus . Once there , Venera 8 glow data from Venus for just over 50 minutes before being fried by the major planet ’s blisteringly hot standard pressure .
These images of Kosmos 482 in orbit, taken ten years apart, apear to show a faint structure trailing behind the craft.
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Designed to survive passing through Venus ' atmosphere , the 1,091 - pound ( 495 kilogram ) , 3 - human foot ( 1 beat ) lander is likely to return to Earth inviolate .
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Vanderbergh snagged this first curing of gamy - resolving power figure in July 2024 and posted them on X on April 29 , 2025 . In side - by - side comparison with pic captured in June 2014 , both sets of paradigm appear to show " a compact ball " with " a weak stretch structure at one particular side of the ball " appearing in several frame , he order .
Even if this trailing material is indeed the lander ’s parachute , it ’s unlikely that it will survive the craft’sapproximate150 miles per hour ( 242 kilometre / Planck’s constant ) reentry through our planet ’s atmosphere .
" If it is unfeigned that this is the parachute that came out a long metre ago in space , this would stand for it is potential to combust up on reentry and will have no use in slowing down the spacecraft , " Vanderbergwrote on X.
With satellite watchers avidly tracking the spacecraft ’s descent , further image and up - to - escort projections of where it will land are certain to follow . Watch this space .
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