A research satellite which ran out of fuel by the European Space Agency is most likely crash to Earth into the ocean or polar regions, the European Space Agency (ESA) said today.

The crash is expected to occur between 1830GMT today and 0030GMT tomorrow and "with a very high probability, a re-entry over Europe can be excluded".

Spokeswoman Jocelyne Landeau said the satellite, GOCE, will mostly disintegrate as it comes down and "we will have only a few pieces which could be 90 kilograms at the most".

ESA said that humans are 250,000 times more likely to win the lottery than to get hit by the debris.

GOCE was launched in 2009 to map the Earth's gravitational field.

 

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