London, May 11 (UNI) A portion of a Soviet-era spacecraft seems likely to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere after remaining stuck in orbit for over half a century, the European Space Agency said.

According to the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking centre (SST) a fragment – believed to be the lander – "most likely" re-entered the atmosphere at about 6-16 pm GMT (11-46 pm IST) on Saturday, the BBC reported.

According to reports, Kosmos 482, which launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, never made it out of Earth's orbit and instead broke into four pieces that have been circling the planet for more than five decades.

It is unclear whether the object fell to the ground or burnt up in the atmosphere.

According to reports, it is also unclear exactly where the object re-entered the atmosphere. aS While most experts do not know about the object's re-entry, 70% of Earth is covered by sea, so it is unlikely to have caused significant damage.

"It's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by this piece of space debris," Stijn Lemmens, a senior analyst at the European Space Agency, said.

Kosmos 482's lander capsule was built to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus's atmosphere, meaning it had a robust heat shield and durable structure.

This is why experts think it may have survived an uncontrolled descent through Earth's atmosphere.

However, Kosmos 482's parachute system, originally intended to slow the lander's descent towards Venus, is likely to have degraded after more than 50 years in space, the report said.

Lemmens explained that the "re-entry of human-made objects into Earth's atmosphere occurs quite frequently". He said it happens weekly for bigger spacecraft and daily for smaller ones.

Objects typically burn up in the earth's atmosphere before they reach the ground.

Kosmos 482 is now being closely tracked by international space agencies. UNI ARN SSP