South Koreans Get An Unusual Phone Alert: Watch Out For US Satellite Crashing Over The Peninsula!

For South Koreans, getting emergency phone alerts related to earthquake warnings or an outbreak is a usual occurrence. But a notification they received on Monday was nothing but unusual.

What Happened: The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT sent out a nationwide alert stating that "some debris from a falling US satellite may crash near the Korean peninsula" around lunchtime, reported Bloomberg. 

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The notification further asked citizens to exercise caution if they were stepping out during that time.

Later, in a statement, the ministry said that the falling spacecraft — NASA's Earth Radiation Budget Satellite — is "believed to have passed over the Korean Peninsula and no special damage has been reported so far." 

Why It's Important: Last week, NASA announced that a 5,400-pound satellite would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after almost four decades in space. The U.S. space agency expected most of the satellite to burn while re-entering the atmosphere, but some components could have survived the journey. 

According to NASA, the risk of harm to anyone on Earth was "very low — approximately 1 in 9,400."

However, the South Korean government took no chance and swiftly used its emergency broadcast system to send an alert message to the citizens, the report noted.

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