What’s that ‘line of lights’ in the night sky?

KEY POINTS:

• The line of lighting fixtures are Starlink satellites, owned by way of Elon Musk’s SpaceX

• Purpose of satellites is to supply standard web get right of entry to

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• 4,000+ Starlink satellites are in orbit as of July 2023 with plans to deploy extra

• May intervene with stargazing

• Any defunct satellites will fritter away utterly prior to making it again to Earth’s floor

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It’s a query we’ve been getting with an increasing number of frequency in the climate studio: “What’s that weird line of lights in the night sky?”

And, to be honest, the lighting fixtures do glance somewhat creepy — a really perfect educate of lighting fixtures marching throughout the sky. Almost as though they have been put there by way of clever beings 🤔.

Well, seems WE are clever beings! To be explicit, the line of lighting fixtures is Starlink satellites.

What are Starlink satellites?

Starlink is a community of satellites operated by way of Elon Musk’s SpaceX corporate.

The first satellites have been deployed in 2019, so the line of lighting fixtures in the sky is a brand new phenomenon. As of July 2023, there are over 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit with plans to deploy greater than 10,000 in the coming years.

The goal of the satellites is to supply web get right of entry to throughout the globe. The satellites keep up a correspondence with floor stations, the nearest of which is situated in New Braunfels. There are 4 different floor stations situated in Texas: Boca Chica, Sanderson, McGregor, and Hampshire.

Impact on stargazing

With hundreds of those satellites in low Earth orbit, there’s a fear about gentle air pollution from astronomers and normal stargazers, making it harder to look at the herbal night sky.

Space “junk”

The Starlink satellites are only a section of the hundreds of satellites in orbit at this time. As the quantity of satellites grows, there’s some fear for collisions resulting in house “junk” or particles falling uncontrollably again to Earth.

The just right news is that Starlink satellites are sufficiently small and designed to totally fritter away prior to attaining Earth’s floor.

How can I view Starlink satellites?

A reside map of the place Starlink satellites are situated will also be discovered here. An approximation of occasions when the educate of satellites will likely be visual will also be discovered here.

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