Chinese Rocket Hurtling Toward Earth Is a Terrifying Guessing Game

A Chinese rocket -- or at least part of one -- is barreling toward the Earth right now in an uncontrolled reentry, where it's expected to land ... somewhere unknown, which is terrifying.

Scientists and astrophysicists have warned the public at large ... be aware that debris from this rocket -- which is said to be around 100 feet tall and weigh about 22 tons -- will be crash landing on Earth sometime between Saturday evening and early Sunday morning.

They say it's expected to be back on our planet somewhere between 4:30 PM PT and 12:30 AM PT, and as far as the where ... well that's still up in the air at this point (pun intended!).

At this point ... the rocket could hit virtually anywhere in North America, Central America, Africa, Australia and some areas in Western Asia. Most of Europe and South America seem to be safe ... based on calculations scientists project as it gets closer and closer.

Now, if you're wondering how this was allowed to happen in the first place -- people are blaming China's reckless deployment of this rocket to launch a piece of a new space station of theirs into orbit back in late April ... but they just let the booster float up there afterward, with no action plan of bringing it back. Now, Earth's gravitational pull has roped it back in.

As a result, the rest of us are left to deal with this mess and hope none of that debris lands in our backyard (or on our heads). They say there's a very small chance of that happening, as most of the rocket is supposed to burn up in the atmosphere once it touches down.

Still though ... it's scary, and has left a lot of people on edge as the weekend forges on.

As freaky as a predicament this is -- the good news is that people also seem to have a good sense of humor about it ... posting jokes and memes about the rocket landing on them. That includes some celebs too, BTW ... including Larry the Cable Guy and Billy Eichner.