It was supposed to be Russia’s mission to one of Mars’ small moons but the spacecraft failed to clear Earth’s orbit, has been stuck there since November and is slowly plunging back to Earth. The spacecraft (Phobos-Grunt) may crash back to Earth on January 15th.
The video was captured by Thierry Legault and Emmanuel Rietsch ( http://legault.perso.sfr.fr ) on New Year’s Day 2012 from the Calern Plateau observatory above Nice in the French Riviera.
Note that all you’ll see is a white dot flaming in the middle of the screen. Nothing “amazing” or “impressive” as some sites have reported the video to be — unless you think it is.
Credit: Thierry Legault and Emmanuel Rietsch
via space