Last night, many baffled Brits were shocked to see a fleet of lights flying through the night sky.
While you may have worried about an alien invasion, thankfully there’s a very simple explanation for the lights - they’re Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites.
They form a constellation of thousands of satellites, and are designed to provide low-cost broadband internet service from low Earth orbit.
Last night, the satellites flew over the UK at around 21:30, and many prepared stargazers had their cameras at the ready.
One Twitter user spotted the satellites over High Cross, writing: “#starlink bunch and second stage went directly over the top of us at 20:52. Caught me by surprise and travelling fast but managed a quick snap! Might see them again in 90 mins or so.”
Another user tweeted: “#Starlink launch passing over the back garden, including SpaceX’s two batch deployments totalling 60 Starlink satellites and the Falcon 9’s upper stage. A launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8:30pm, and at 8:52pm it passes over the UK. Space is for everyone. #KeepLookingUp.”
Meanwhile, Twitter user Geraint Jones spotted the satellites from Guildford, writing: “Starlink 7 satellites and #Falcon9 2nd stage heading east post-launch after passing over Guildford, UK; one exposure every 3 seconds. Trailed star is Arcturus.”
If you missed the display, thankfully you’ll have several other chances to spot the satellites this week.
Here’s a round-up of the best times to see the Starlink satellites this week, as well as how to track them through the night sky.
What time can you see the Starlink satellite display this week?
There will be several opportunities for you to see the Starlink satellites from the UK this week.
The satellites will be visible at:
8:54 pm, 23 Apr 2020
3:40 am, 24 Apr 2020
9:10 pm, 24 Apr 2020
10:46 pm, 24 Apr 2020
4:15 am, 25 Apr 2020
How to track the Starlink satellites
If you want to track the satellites in real-time, you can visit the Find Starlink website.
The site allows you to view the satellites’ location in real-time on a map, or input your location to see exactly when the satellites will be visible from your home.
Results are filtered based on how bright the satellites will be, so make sure you're looking at those listed as 'Bright'.
What are the Starlink satellites?
Elon Musk hopes the satellites will bring low-cost internet to remote areas on Earth.
Starlink explained: “With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”
However, several astronomers have raised concerns that one of the satellites could pass in front of a telescope and obscure an image.
In a recent study, published in arXiv, researchers led by Stefano Gallozzi, wrote: "Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations.
"With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched in Medium and Low Earth Orbit, the mean density of artificial objects will be of >1 satellite for square sky degree; this will inevitably harm professional astronomical images."
Did you spot the Starlink display last night? Email your photos to shivali.best@reachplc.com
