Nasa Satellite Finally Plummets to Earth in Ball of Fire

And it added, on another Tweet, that anyone who finds a piece of debris would have to hand it over.

The agency said: 'Any pieces of #UARS found are still the property of the country that made it. You'll have to give 'em back to U.S.'

The craft was being tracked by all available equipment, including a giant radar at RAF Fylingdales on the North York Moors, England, on its path towards our planet.

NASA said it would only know two hours before impact where it would land – and even that prediction would only be accurate to the nearest 6,000 miles.

The agency said it could be anywhere between the 57th parallel north, which crosses Britain at around Inverness, and the 57th parallel south, which passes just below South America.

Global interest in the satellite grew yesterday: a website set up to 'track' the falling satellite was constantly crashing under incredible demand, and an app for Android smartphones, Satellite AR, allowed people to 'see' where it was at any moment.

An incredible video captured the doomed Nasa satellite earlier this week as NASA experts slowly narrowed down the area where it could strike.

Astrophotographer Thierry Legault's clip, shot in northern France, shows the 20-year-old UARS satellite, appearing as a beaming mass of light as it careers to Earth.

The station at RAF Fylingdalers was originally built at the height of the Cold War to track any incoming ballistic missile attack - a role it still performs.

An RAF spokeswoman said: 'The Space Operations Room at Royal Air Force Fylingdales is manned 24 hours a day by specialist Royal Air Force and civilian personnel, and its operators will be working to track the UARS object as it returns to the atmosphere.