ESA ATV-2 Johannes Kepler about to re-enter Earth's Atmosphere

Late on Tuesday (GMT), a huge fireball will streak across the skies over the Pacific Ocean. 

Not many will get to see it; it will be over an uninhabited part of the world, and ships and planes have been warned to steer clear of the area.

The event is the return from orbit of Europe's space freighter, ATV-Johannes Kepler.

It has completed its mission at the International Space Station (ISS) and it's now time to come home.
The freighter took up more than seven tonnes of fuel and other supplies to the orbiting outpost, but for its return it has been packed with the platform's rubbish.

Little of the ship or this waste is actually expected to make it all the way to the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Most will simply vaporise in the intense heat generated during the descent through the atmosphere.

Johannes Kepler has spent the past four months attached to the back of the ISS. It has been filled with all the rubbish from the space station for its destructive return to Earth
 

This is the second time a European freighter has made the fall to Earth. In 2008, the maiden vessel, Jules Verne, did exactly the same thing.