Sinking Cities, Waving Cuttlefish and Falling Spacecraft

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

A 1970s Soviet spacecraft is hurtling down from space—and no one knows where it will land. All 28 of the most populous cities in the U.S. are slowly sinking. Investments and overconsumption make the wealthiest 10 percent of the global population responsible for two thirds of climate-change-related warming. Recommended reading: Cuttlefish May Communicate with Discolike Arm Gestures https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cuttlefish-may-communicate-with-discolike-arm-gestures/ This Soviet Spacecraft Will Soon Crash-Land on Earth https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-to-know-about-kosmos-482-the-soviet-spacecraft-crash-landing-on-earth/ Tell us what you think! Take our survey for the chance to win some SciAm swag! http://sciencequickly.com/survey E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:28.0	Happy Monday, listeners. For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. Let's catch up on some of the science news you may have missed last week.
1:44.8	First, a space junk update. By the time you listen to this, a Soviet-era spacecraft may or may not have crash-landed on Earth.
1:50.9	Cosmos 482, which the USSR launched back in 1972, was meant to follow the successful probes, Venera 7 and Venera 8, in landing on and studying Venus.
1:55.8	But a suspected engine malfunction meant that Cosmos 482 never achieved enough velocity to escape Earth's orbit.
2:02.2	It's been orbiting our planet ever since and losing altitude along the way.
2:06.4	Some of Cosmos 482 already fell back down to Earth decades ago, but one last big chunk
2:11.3	has held on for more than half a century.
2:13.9	Last week, researchers said Cosmos 482 would probably make its uncontrolled descent over the weekend.
2:19.3	Its potential landing zone stretched from 52 degrees north to 52-degree south latitude,
	...

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