A blanket of northern snow and lake-effect snow from the Great Lakes and clouds behind an Arctic cold front are seen in an image from NOAA's GOES-East satellite taken January 7, 2015. An Arctic air blast from Canada hit the U.S. Midwest, Mid-Atlantic
(IN PHOTO) A blanket of northern snow and lake-effect snow from the Great Lakes and clouds behind an Arctic cold front are seen in an image from NOAA's GOES-East satellite taken January 7, 2015. An Arctic air blast from Canada hit the U.S. Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with many parts around minus 10 Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), the National Weather Service said. Picture taken January 7, 2015. REUTERS/NASA/NOAA GOES Project

The 20-year-old weather satellite, DMSP-F13, by the U.S Department of Defence reportedly exploded in the orbit on February 3, 2015. The news was confirmed by Air Force Space Command in Colorado. The explosion produced 43 pieces of debris, which is now believed to be set lower in the Earth's orbit.

The explosion is believed to happen due to a sudden increase in the temperature followed by an unrecoverable power loss.

"Basically, the spacecraft was 20 years old and experienced what appears to be a catastrophic event associated with a power system failure," confirmed the chief of operationas division at Air Force Space Command, Andy Raoke, reported Space.com.

Even though the satellite explosion took place in early February, the official announcement about the satellite destruction came much later by the satellite tracking company, the fact that has raised concerns among the orbital analysts. It is believed that the spread of satellite destruction reports by the media channels prompted the Air Force Space Command to confirm the news.

The United States Air Force is currently tracking the pieces of debris that have been set into the earth's orbit for the occurrence of any unlikely events.

The satellite was put into orbit in 1995 at a distance of 500 miles above the earth's surface, and since then it had completed more than 100,000 orbits around the earth. In 2006, its functioning was modified from weather forecasting satellite to the data backup role.

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