Ferrari of Space falls on Earth

The European Space Agency's GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, burning up in the process. Early estimates suggested any surviving debris could have fallen somewhere along a path through East Asia and the Western Pacific to Antarctica. Dubbed the Ferrari of space because of its sleek looks, Goce is the first European Space Agency mission to make an uncontrolled re-entry in more than 25 years.

The gravity mapping probe's plunge was inevitable once it ran out of fuel. The mission was operating in an extremely low orbit, at 224 km altitude, the lowest of any scientific satellite.

GOCE was launched in 2009 to map variations in Earth's gravity. Scientists assembled the data into the first detailed global maps of the boundary between the planet's crust and mantle, among other projects.

The satellite ran out of fuel on 21st October and had been steadily losing altitude since, tugged by Earth's gravity.

The 1.2-ton satellite is small in comparison to other spacecraft that recently crashed back into the atmosphere.

In January 2012, Russia's failed 14-ton Phobos-Grunt Mars probe returned. In 2011, NASA's 6.5-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and Germany's 2.4-ton X-ray ROSAT telescope re-entered the atmosphere.