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"After the European Space Agency lost radio communications with its Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite late on Sunday, the outcome was clear \u2014 the gravity probe had re-entered the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and burned up. What was less certain, however, was where the spacecraft had burned up.\nThe mystery of GOCE\u2019s re-entry has now been solved \u2014 the one-ton satellite came down over the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory 300 miles east of the Patagonian coast in the South Atlantic Ocean.\nSEE ALSO: Spacecraft Down: Gravity Probe Suffers Fiery Death\n\nFalklands resident Bill Chater took to Twitter to report seeing GOCE\u2019s re-entry:\n\nWe saw it burn up from the Falklands at about 9.20pm last night. Came from the South breaking up into bits. pic.twitter.com/54DwAiTI0k\n\u2014 Bill Chater (@Cheds23) November 11, 2013\n\nDescribing what he saw to the BBC\u2019s Jonathan Amos, Chater continued: \u201CDriving southwards at dusk, it appeared with bright smoke trail and split in 2 before splitting again into more and going on north.\u201D\nSEE ALSO: Gravity Satellite Felt Japan Quake from Space\n\nIn response to that eyewitness account, satellite watchers chimed in to corroborate Chater\u2019s possible GOCE sighting. Satellite tracker Marco Langbroek reported:\n\n@esa @BBCAmos Time is a close enough match, geogr. location as well. Falkland currently UT -3h, so ~21:20 is ~00:20 UT. I'd say it is it.\n\u2014 Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) November 11, 2013\n\nHowever, this could have all been coincidence until ESA\u2019s official Twitter account took up the call to investigate, forwarding the eyewitness account to ESA Operations at Darmstadt, Germany.\n\n@Marco_Langbroek @BBCAmos @cheds23 thanks, have passed it on to the ESOC orbit experts for confirmation\n\u2014 ESA (@esa) November 11, 2013\n\nThen came confirmation: \n\nESOC experts confirm - this is #GOCE! MT @Cheds23: We saw GOCE burn up from the Falklands at about 9.20pm last night. pic.twitter.com/DBYsV1n7KR\n\u2014 ESA (@esa) November 11, 2013\n\nFrom possible sighting to official confirmation, the whole process of GOCE\u2019s demise was documented via Twitter, a testament to the power of social media when tracking space events in real time.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\nImage: Flickr, Victor\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/11/11/goce-satellite-falkland-islands/>