HEADS UP AUSSIES: Out of fuel GOCE satellite to crash-land on Earth Sunday afternoon!!

A 2,000-pound European satellite has run out of fuel and is expected to plunge back to Earth sometime between 1:30 PM EST and 7:00 PM, scientists with Europe's Space Debris Office said Sunday.

As of 9:30 A.M. EST it was over Greenland and racing toward Canada; it will pass over the Dakotas, Colorado and New Mexico shortly. Where precisely it will crash remains up in the air.

As the whizzing GOCE -- or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer -- descends, scientists are carefully monitoring it to determine the landing site and ensure public safety. With each orbit, it descends from a current altitude of under 90 miles by about 0.6 miles per hour.

"With a very high probability, a re-entry over Europe can be excluded," wrote Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office, on an ESA website Sunday. Klinkrad, who is closely monitoring the GOCE re-entry, cited radar measurements and satellite-to-satellite tracking.

“The most probable impact ground swath runs over oceans and polar regions, as well as uninhabited areas of Australia,” he said.

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