Defunct climate satellite to return to Earth Wednesday

A satellite that left Earth in 1995 will reenter Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, nearly 13 years after its mission ended.

A defunct satellite is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, nearly 13 years after being taken out of service by the European Space Agency. 

The ESA said the ERS-2 satellite was spotted about 125 miles above the Earth's surface earlier this week. Once it reaches an altitude of about 50 miles, the ESA said the satellite will break into pieces. 

The satellite weighs over 5,000 pounds and is about 39 feet long.

The space agency said that the risk posed by falling satellites is very low. 

ERS-2 was launched in 1995 and at the time was the "most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe." Its mission was to record data to help scientists better understand climate change.