Observatory Satellite Comes Back to Earth
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A 3,086-pound Dutch-Italian satellite splashed into the Pacific Ocean seven years after being sent into space.
The BeppoSAX satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 2:57 p.m. PDT on Tuesday. It fell in the equatorial Pacific about 186 miles northwest of the Galapagos Islands. The Earth-orbiting X-ray observatory is best known for its discovery of 50 gamma-ray bursts, explosions more powerful than anything known since the big bang.
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