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BIZARRE bright “streaks” will streak across the sky over Britain tonight in a rare light show that has astronomers insane.
The dazzling specs are swarms of “Starlink” satellites built by SpaceX, a rocket company that wants to stream super-fast WiFi to people from orbit. We have all the information on how to detect them below.
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What is Starlink?
Starlink is a project that intends to put 12,000 satellites into Earth’s orbit so that they can provide cheap WiFi to the world.
They are built and launched by SpaceX, which also intends to sell its satellites for military, scientific, and exploratory purposes.
The company ships its satellites in batches of 60 at a time and so far has deployed 362 into orbit.
Each group launches on an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket.
How the probes will affect the night sky is causing concern while sitting in low orbit, making them appear brighter than stars and planets.
SpaceX is a California rocket company owned by crazy billionaire Elon Musk.
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When to watch tonight’s Starlink show
In the UK, Starlink satellites will begin to appear in the night sky around 9:55 p.m. BST.
They will appear as bright dot “trains” that travel east to west fairly quickly (for a satellite).
Hobbyist stargazers can expect to see them glide across the sky for about 20 minutes.
The satellites are so bright that you won’t need binoculars or a telescope to see them.
It goes without saying that you will need a clear sky and as little light as possible to detect them.
Try not to look too hard at your phone and turn off the exterior lights to reduce light pollution.
Starlink satellites can take up to ten minutes.
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How to track Starlink satellites in real time
Not sure where to look? Your phone has you covered.
There are several stargazing apps that you can use to follow the path of Starlink probes.
In the Apple App Store, we recommend Night Sky, which is free and helps you find all kinds of heavenly wonders.
For Android fans, Satellite Tracker should be the trick (also available on iPhone).
Alternatively, you can visit the Find Starlink website (or the “Find Starlink Satellites” app) and enter your location.
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Sightings during the weekend
The bewildered Britons were stunned and confused as Starlink satellites lit up the night sky over the weekend.
Enthusiastic stargazers watched in wonder as a trail of lights crossed the sky last night, around 9:20 p.m.
They took social media to speculate whether the streaks were meteor showers or even UFOs.
The British turned to Twitter to share their confusion at the incredible light screen.
Steve said: “Does anyone know what the long chain of satellites that span the British sky is right now? Must be 50 of them so far?
Al Iguana commented: “I went out into the garden to observe the stars and saw six” satellites “, in a row, at a fairly equal distance, moving north.
“They weren’t planes, because a flickering jumbo light flew below them, and it was lower and slower.
“They were not meteorites, because they do not travel in a convoy … # UFOs.”
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Is Starlink “blocking” the night sky?
The Starlink program is controversial among astronomers, who have criticized Musk’s brain schema.
They say that satellites get in the way of observations and prevent them from seeing the night sky due to light.
Western Ontario University meteor researcher Denis Vida stated in a blog post last year: “You have to worry about what our skies will look like when we hear that there are plans to launch a total of 42,000 satellites.”
“This could completely refuse to make optical meteor observations as early as 2024.”
However, Musk claims that satellite trains have no such impact.
Speaking at a conference in Washington DC last month, he said: “I am sure we will not make any impact on astronomical discoveries. Zero. That is my prediction.
“We will take corrective action if it is above zero.”
SpaceX engineers are also said to be looking to make satellites a little less bright so they don’t reflect as much of the sun.
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Will Starlink ‘trap’ humanity on Earth?
There have been concerns that humanity could be trapped on Earth by too much space debris in Earth’s orbit.
That’s according to a space scientist, who says Musk’s plan could create an impenetrable wall of space junk around our planet.
A catastrophic disorder of space debris left by satellites could prevent rockets from leaving Earth, an effect known as “Kessler’s syndrome.”
“The worst case scenario is: you launch all your satellites, you go bankrupt and they all stay there,” European Space Agency scientist Dr. Stijn Lemmens told Scientific American.
“Then you have thousands of new satellites without a plan to get them out of there. And you would have Kessler-like syndrome.”
It will take thousands of years for the SpaceX satellites remaining in our orbit to descend to Earth and burn in the atmosphere.
The firm says it has already taken steps to avoid crowding the region. It is launching the satellites into a lower orbital plane than most space technology to avoid collisions.
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What do you think of Musk’s satellite plan? Let us know in the comments!
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