Professor Hawking celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday. Image: NASA
By Ben Gilliland
09 January 2012
Russia’s failed Mars probe Phobos-Grunt has been pictured by a Paris-based amateur astronomer. The probe, which was launched into orbit on November 8, 2011, only managed to get as far as Earth orbit and has been falling back ever since. Phobos-Grunt is expected to re-enter the atmosphere in the next 7 to 8 days and burn up. The Russian space agency (Roscosmos) expect that perhaps 20-30 pieces of the craft, weighing no more than 200kg in total, will survive re-entry to impact the surface.