The Big Apple is in the path of an out-of-control Chinese satellite that is expected to crash into Earth on Easter weekend, according to a report.
Tiangong-1, a 9.4-ton piece of space junk known as the Heavenly Palace, will re-enter the atmosphere between March 30 and April 3, according to the European Space Agency.
But exactly where the flaming projectile — which is carrying highly toxic substances — will strike remains a mystery.
Scientists tracking the doomed craft at the agency’s Space Debris Office say Tiangong-1 will hit the northern hemisphere — most likely around latitudes of 43 degrees north and south, the Daily Mail reported.
In addition to New York City, the narrow strip includes the heavily populated cities of Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto.
The ESA stressed that the crash date estimates remain “highly variable” and that its experts would be providing revised forecasts every couple of days.
“At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible,’” the debris office, based in Darmstadt, Germany, said in a statement.
“This forecast was updated approximately weekly through to mid-March, and is now being updated every 1-2 days,” it said.
The satellite has been Earth-bound since Chinese scientists lost control of it in 2016. It is expected to burn up upon re-entry, but pieces as large as 220 pounds could reach our planet.
Despite the alarming news, experts pointed out that the chance of being struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about a million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot.
Hugh Lewis, a senior lecturer in aerospace engineering at the University of Southampton, compared the geometrical processes at play to crossing a street.
“The spacecraft is traveling around a more or less circular orbit, which is tipped with respect to the equator at 43 degrees,” he told MailOnline.
“If you plot this path on a map of the Earth, it produces a sine wave pattern, with the slower curve of the wave in northern and southern latitudes and the faster straighter sections running from east to west,” he said.
“If you imagine the green low-risk area on the map is the part of the road we’re trying to walk across, the quickest way is to go at 90 degrees – straight across,” he continued.
“When the spacecraft crosses the equator, it’s crossing the road at this point, and it does so really fast,” he said. “When it goes across the red bands farther north and south, it’s crossing at a steeper angle — almost parallel to the road. It takes longer to cross at these latitudes, which is why it has a higher risk of coming down here.”
