Chinese space station Tiangong-1 reenters atmosphere over Pacific
 

A defunct Chinese space station plummeted through Earth's atmosphere on Sunday night, and officials said debris from the 18,000-pound spacecraft landed in the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...rth-ncna861756

But where did the safe land? (All orbiting man made objects contain at least one piece that is "the size of a safe".)

I think the safe crashed on part of the last paragraph.

Errr, wait, wouldn't that be the North Pacific then, since Hawaii is north of the Equator? I'd always thought the South Pacific was the region of the Pacific Ocean south of the Equator.

Thompson is an engineering specialist, not a geography specialist.

I'm guessing that it was based on the idea that "South Pacific" is the warm, tropical islands part and "North Pacific" is the cold, arctic or near-arctic areas like the Aleutians.

Wikipedia says the South Pacific (or the South Seas) is the part south of the Panama Canal's latitude. That still doesn't put Hawaii in it.

Other news articles say the debris came down within 100km of Tahiti, though. Which doesn't put it between Hawaii and CA, but does put it in the South Pacific, I think.

The Pacific? Wow, that's the ocean I live near!

Missed it by *that* much...

OMG, I live near that ocean too. We must be neighbours.

Well of course the boundaries are vague and ill-defined, it's not the Specific ocean :fish:

Me too! This is truly the luckiest day of our lives.