Russian Mars Probe to Crash into Earth on Sunday

But on the plus side, all the toxic fuel aboard Phobos-Grunt should (we hope!) burn up in the atmosphere.

Hey guys, do you remember Phobos-Grunt, the wayward Russian space probe? Well, it looks like the probe is going to be crashing back to Earth this weekend, in all its potentially toxic debris-spewing glory! Scientists tracking the probe say it will re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime around noon GMT on Sunday, although just where it lands is basically anyone's guess at this point. The most likely landing zone appears to be the Indian Ocean, but just about every major city and country on the planet stands a chance of being hit by debris. The probe, the largest spacecraft ever built by Ruscosmos, the Russian space agency, was supposed to have landed on Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, to collect ground samples. But shortly after taking off in December, one of its rockets malfunctioned, preventing the craft from exiting Earth's orbit. It's been circling the planet ever since, getting ever closer to breaching Earth's atmosphere. Scientists are hoping that most of the probe's toxic fuel will burn up upon reentry, which is good news for the Earth's surface (if not so much for the outer layers of our atmosphere), although Ruscosmos says as many as 30 pieces of debris weighing a total of 200 kilograms could hit Earth. The National Post's great graphics team has put together a neat infographic explaining the potential crash zones. Somewhat suspiciously, almost all of Russia (and Edmonton!) is out of harm's way.