A hunk of space junk crashed through his roof in Florida. Who should pay to fix it?

By -
By Bill Chappell, NPR. 

Excerpt: Alejandro Otero was out of town on vacation last month when his son called from their house in Naples, Fla., to tell him ...he heard an extremely loud crash — and realized it came from inside the house. ...the object wasn't a meteorite. It was cylindrical, and while one end was melted by the heat of reentry, the other had a smooth round shape with a circular indentation. ...[It was] a large battery pallet from the International Space Station that NASA released for an uncontrolled reentry, three years ago. ..."The location of the reentry was predicted by the 18th Space Defense Squadron to be in the Gulf of Mexico,". ..."We are in the process of sending NASA our claim which will include the insurance and non-insurance damages," he says, adding that his lawyer has been in touch with NASA's legal counsel. ..."It will depend on whose module of the space station that came from," said Sundahl, who is the director of the Global Space Law Center at Cleveland State University. "We have an international convention on liability for damage caused by outer space objects ...from 1972. ...But, Sundahl added, if the object in question turns out to be part of a U.S. module, "then the international law no longer applies. It becomes a domestic legal issue, and a homeowner would have to bring a tort action against the federal government.".... 

Popular posts from this blog

Stellar remains of famed 1987 supernova found at last

By -
https://www.science.org/content/article/stellar-remains-famed-1987-supernova-found-last By DANIEL CLERY , Science.  Excerpt: When a nearby star exploded in 1987, it created the first supernova visible to the naked eye in 4 centuries and became one of the most intensely studied objects in space. Now, after more than 35 years of searching, researchers have finally discovered the cinder left behind. Using NASA’s new giant space telescope JWST, astronomers spotted  glowing gas at the center of the blast that can only have been energized by something hot and compact inside it , they report this week in Science. They believe a neutron star, all that remains of the shattered star, is responsible.... 
Read more

Planets around dead stars offer glimpse of the Solar System’s future—after the Sun swallows us up

By -
https://www.science.org/content/article/planets-around-dead-stars-offer-glimpse-solar-system-s-future-after-sun-swallows-us By JONATHAN O’CALLAGHAN , Science.  Excerpt: In about 5 billion years the Sun will balloon up into a red giant, consuming Mercury, probably Venus, and maybe even Earth. But even if the outer planets avoid being swallowed up, they might eventually get pulled in or ejected from the Solar System. A new discovery suggests they can survive intact. Using NASA’s JWST space telescope, astronomers have for the first time directly imaged planets on Solar System–like orbits around white dwarfs, the dead stars left after Sun-like stars swell into red giants and subside. The planets follow orbits resembling those of the giant planets in the outer Solar System—big enough for them to have escaped the inferno.... For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.
Read more

Black hole at center of Milky Way may be blasting out a jet

By -
https://www.science.org/content/article/black-hole-center-milky-way-may-be-blasting-out-jet   By DANIEL CLERY , Science.  Excerpt: The supermassive black holes at the centers of many galaxies generate powerful jets, blasting particles thousands of light-years into space. This new image of the Milky Way’s black hole, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), suggests it may have one, too, but perhaps of a more modest nature. The image—taken with polarized light—was  released today by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) , a worldwide array of radio telescopes that in 2019 produced the  first ever image of a black hole . The new image shows light that is oriented in a particular direction, revealing magnetic field lines around the black hole. Although jets would not be visible in such a zoomed-in image, strong magnetic fields are thought to be essential in launching them.... See also European Southern Observatory press release . 
Read more