The Ministry of Science, Technology and Research today stated that the Sri Lanka Planetarium was ready to observe the piece of space junk expected to hit Earth off the coast of Sri Lanka on November 13.

The object that is dubbed as WT1190F, is predicted to strike the Earth November 13 at about 11.45 am. The large portions of the object will burn up in the atmosphere, but the rest is expected to plunge into the ocean about 65 miles off the southern coast.

It is believed that the 6.5-foot-long object could be part of a discarded rocket, possibly even dating back to the 1960s and '70s during NASA's Apollo era.

Moreover, this is one of the first times scientists have been able to predict, specifically, the time and location of reentry for a piece of space debris. And also astronomers will be able to point instruments to the location and study the reentry of the WT1190F.

The Planetarium is ready to study the object hitting the earth from Tangalle, the ministry said.