"The object entered the atmosphere over central Egypt. The object was not designed to survive or re-enter intact and was expected to break up and mostly burn up in the atmosphere," U.S. Space Command spokesman Air Force Lt. Jonathan Kusy told Reuters.

Unlike many other satellites, such as the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory which was safely brought down on June 4, 2000, the EUVE did not have an on-board propulsion system to allow engineers to control its reentry.

Kusy said it was unclear whether any satellite debris, consisting largely of titanium or stainless steel, had survived re-entry and reached the ground.

"We don't know whether it hit the ground in Central Egypt or not," said Kusy, adding that during reentry objects could travel several thousand miles from the calculated reentry point.

However, he said it was rare for objects to survive when they burned up in the atmosphere and that it could be a long time before anyone reported finding pieces of debris.

On Wednesday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the probability of the satellite landing in a populated area and hurting someone was very small.

"It is more likely that the small pieces will fall into the ocean or fall harmlessly to the ground," said Ronald E. Mahmot, Project Manager for Space Science Mission Operations at NASA's Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt Maryland.

NASA scientists estimated that up to nine objects ranging in weight from four to 100 pounds could survive and that the debris field was expected to be over an area of 500 to 625 miles.

Skylab, an abandoned space station, was the biggest uncontrolled entry by a NASA spacecraft. It fell from orbit in 1979 and its debris landed in the Indian Ocean and across an unpopulated area in western Australia.

Overnight, as the ultraviolet satellite fell into lower and lower orbits, scientists changed their estimates several times over where it would reenter Earth's atmosphere.

At one time, it was set to reenter near the Brazilian town of Belem but later, NASA said the impact was predicted for the northeastern side of the Persian Gulf.

The satellite was launched on June 7, 1992, and ended its work in December 2001. While in orbit, EUVE provided information about the extreme ultraviolet spectrum.

When it first went into space, scientists had predicted the satellite would see about 24 objects but in fact it observed more than 1,000 nearby sources including more than three dozen objects outside our galaxy.

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=560383