1/ We are monitoring a close approach event involving IRAS (13777), the decommissioned space telescope launched in 1983, and GGSE-4 (2828), an experimental US payload launched in 1967. (IRAS image credit: NASA)

2/ On Jan 29 at 23:39:35 UTC, these two objects will pass close by one another at a relative velocity of 14.7 km/s (900km directly above Pittsburgh, PA). Our latest metrics on the event show a predicted miss distance of between 15-30 meters.

3/ These numbers are especially alarming considering the size of IRAS at 3.6m x 3.24m x 2.05m. The combined size of both objects increases the computed probability of a collision, which remains near 1 in 100.

@LeoLabs_Space What's the outcome if they did collide?

@LeoLabs_Space Eeeeeyow. So, the Eastern seaboard better duck? Or maybe the whole line of the Appalachians... Just a ballpark, haven't done the math.

@LeoLabs_Space This is going to happen directly above Pittsburgh Pa... where I live ! 😬😬😬😱😱😱

@LeoLabs_Space So the @NASA_Technology owns one or both satellites? Who is responsible for "clean up" if there is a collision? Isn't this the equivalent of "cosmic littering"?

@LeoLabs_Space Satellites aren't in Outer-Space so...Heliocentrism and Big Bang Theory being lies.

@LeoLabs_Space Well? did they collide?

@LeoLabs_Space BTW did they collide? I imagine such s crash could quickly destroy many more satellites, with all the fragments taking new unpredictable orbits at such speed. Right? Is it possible that such an event impact modern satellites sending us right into 1800?