"Most of the Earth's surface is covered by water or is uninhabited, so nobody tends to even see this kind of debris when it does land," Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at Southampton University, told the Guardian.
"Those pieces that do survive re-entry have slowed down a lot, but they are still travelling quite fast. Because of their size, they would do significant damage if they hit a structure or a person, but the chances of that happening are remote," he added.
According to a certain news channel I saw this morning at work, if you do find a pice of the satellite please return it to NASA, as you should respect their propetah! And finally, if you're still picturing a tumbling man-made asteroid, don't worry this really isn't the end of the world... or is it?
Wherever the spacecraft lands, it will give the relevant authorities valuable experience ahead of a potentially more dangerous event in early November, when the German Rosat satellite re-enters at 28,000kph. The German space agency, DLR, said up to 30 pieces of the spacecraft might survive re-entry, with a combined mass of more than one-and-a-half tonnes.
Dun-dun-duh!