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It will be between March 24 and April 19. Time

A 9.4-ton Chinese space station will plummet to Earth on April 1. This isn’t a joke. 

It’s an uncontrolled mass known as the Heavenly Palace, Tiangong-1.  

The European Space Agency (ESA) predicted Thursday the Heavenly Palace will re-enter Earth's atmosphere between March 3 and April 3. Where exactly the flaming debris will land is largely a mystery. Forecasters say it could land south of Canada. A strip of the United States in a "worst-case location" band that includes states from northern California to Pennsylvania, according to analysis by the federally-funded Aerospace Corporation. 

The good news is that no one needs to cancel Easter plans and abandon the planet. 

The odds of the unmanned station crashing into a person is “about 1 million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot,” the analysis found. That’s because Earth's atmosphere will likely burn up and break apart some of the 34-foot long mass. 

Also, after years of space exploration, only one person, Lottie Williams of Tulsa, has ever been recorded being struck by spacecraft debris. A piece of a Delta II rocket hit her on the shoulder in 1996. She wasn't seriously injured.  

What is concerning is that a “highly” toxic substance called hydrazine could survive re-entry. Don’t touch unknown substances on the ground and avoid inhaling fumes, Aerospace warns.

In 2016, the Chinese stopped receiving data from the station, which is why its re-entry likely won't be controlled. 

Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets

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