The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite reentered on Monday the earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in the high atmosphere, no damage to property was reported, said the European Space Agency (ESA).

The satellite GOCE, launched in March 2009, has mapped in the past four years variations in the earth's gravity with unrivalled precision, which could improve understanding of ocean circulation, sea level, ice dynamics and the earth's interior, said the agency in a statement.

The mission came to a natural end on Oct. 21 when it ran out of fuel. Over the past three weeks, it gradually descended and finally reentered the atmosphere on Monday at around 1:00 a.m. local time.

"While most of the 1,100 kg satellite disintegrated in the atmosphere, an estimated 25 percent reached Earth's surface," the statement said.

"The one-tonne GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100 to 150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth's atmosphere annually," the statement quoted Heiner Klinkrad, head of ESA's Space Debris Office, as saying.

"In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15,000 tonnes of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date," he said.

Source: Xinhuanet