Chinese Spacecraft Reentry Tracked Using Earthquake Sensors

When the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-15 came back to Earth, its break-up in the atmosphere was tracked in an unusual way — by seismometers.

Seismic stations in southern California detected small ground vibrations caused by shock waves as the spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere on April 2, 2024.

Using this data, scientists were able to track the path of the falling spacecraft pieces more accurately than with traditional methods.

The study, published on January 22 in Science, shows that networks built to detect earthquakes can also be used to monitor falling space debris, like old spacecraft or leftover rocket parts, which could be dangerous to people and property.