A Japanese satellite that finished its mission in 1998 was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere just past 11 p.m. Monday, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) said.

The re-entry of JERS-1, known in Japanese as Fuyo No. 1, was earlier anticipated at around 4:20 p.m. but the time was revised, apparently because of an error in observation data supplied by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Japanese agency predicted that the re-entry would take place sometime between 9:54 p.m. Monday and 12:42 a.m. Tuesday with the strongest possibility of re-entry at around 11 p.m., when the satellite is expected to be traveling above the Republic of Kiribati near the equator in the Pacific. Debris is likely to drop into the ocean, the agency said.

Two heat-resistant tanks made of titanium alloy, each weighing 7 kg, could withstand the frictional heat from re-entering the atmosphere, the agency said.

If the re-entry was to occur past 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, debris could fall on the Kanto and the Tohoku region, according to NASDA. But it said the probability of any damage to humans from debris is one in 263 trillion.

The JERS-1, formally known as Japan Earth Resource Satellite, was launched in 1992 and was in use until 1998 searching for resources such as crude oil and observing the Amazon rain forest and other areas.

It will be the first Japanese satellite to fall to Earth.