What are these lights ? Image Credit: YouTube / Marco Langbroek / VideoFromSpace
A Dutch UFO website was inundated with reports on Saturday after a conga line of lights appeared in the sky.
The spectacle, which was visible across the Netherlands, had sparked fears of an alien invasion.
As it turned out however, the explanation was a lot more mundane.
The lights were actually satellites launched a few hours earlier by SpaceX as part of Elon Musk's "Starlink" space-based Internet communication system.
A total of 60 satellites were sent up, however it is expected that the Starlink constellation will be made up of a whopping 12,000 satellites by the mid-2020s.
What made the launch particularly noteworthy in this case was the way the satellites formed a long line in the sky, leading unwary skywatchers to report that they had seen an armada of UFOs.
It is expected that the satellites will spread out and appear dimmer over time.
i recall i believe it was kevin randall of one of those ufologists taking about betty hill, she would go to lectures and wax about trucks floating over highways..everywhere a group went out with her at night and to her everything, street lights, stop signs you name it was an alien craft, complete with floating trucks....
The Starlink satellites, which use a krypton ion thruster with very low thrust, will be disbursing over the next few days and will likely become far less visible, a least that is what they hope. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/24/spacex-reveals-more-starlink-info-after-launch-of-first-60-satellites/ Starlink satellite.
Yep, hope. I'm not sure SpaceX would keep launching if they are going to put thousands of reflective satellites in orbit knowing the furor it would cause (include me in that furor) so let's see what happens before condemning it but it will be a great boon to many parts of the world that can't get connected to he internet if SpaceX can make it work. All the satellites will deorbit naturally at end of life so they won't add to the clutter.
I mean if you didn't know there was gonna be a launch I could see this being creepy but just like that Russian failed missile over Norway created this wormhole entry to another dimension freaked people out lol
Elon Musk is listening to complaints from astronomers and tweeted that if he satellites don't "disappear" when at altitude and facing the Sun they wil coat the craft with something to lower the albedo. https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites-wont-ruin-night-sky-elon-musk.html
Please Login or Register to post a comment.