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- A Starlink satellite moves through the night sky over Saltburn on April 20, 2020 at Saltburn By The Sea, England. Owned by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX aims to create a constellation of 12,000 satellites in Earth’s orbit to improve Internet service worldwide.
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- Ian Forsyth / Getty Images
- Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX plans to launch up to 42,000 satellites into orbit to transmit the Internet to remote parts of Earth.
- SpaceX has already launched nearly 200 Starlink satellites into orbit, and this week British stargazers were stunned to see a bright trail as satellites crossed the clear night skies.
- Social media users from Wales to Essex, south east England reported the satellite trail shortly after 9 p.m.
- Satellites should be visible in the UK and Western Europe again this week, this is how you can spot them.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
If you saw a quirky UFO trail in the UK on Monday night, don’t be alarmed, it was probably Starlink satellites.
SpaceX, the space exploration company founded by Elon Musk, plans to put thousands of satellites into space to transmit Internet access to remote parts of Earth. There are already nearly 300 Starlink satellites in orbit at the moment, and some are visible to the naked eye, depending on where they are located.
European stargazers reported seeing a satellite trail on Monday night, and users on social media posted sightings in Wales, England, Germany and Kosovo.
Here’s how you can check when Starlink satellites can be seen from your location:
Starlink is a program by space exploration firm Elon Musk’s SpaceX to transmit Internet access around the Earth using a satellite network.
There are currently more than 300 Starlink satellites in orbit.
SpaceX first announced the program in 2015, and the goal is to put 12,000 satellites into orbit.
A chain of satellites became visible over the night skies in Europe starting Sunday, with users on social media tweeting sightings of Berlin, Wales and Kosovo.
#spaceX #starlink live from #Kosovo. pic.twitter.com/MXkVWT4iZt
– Astrit Spanca (@ astritspanca776) April 19, 2020
Satellites look a bit like a string of colored lights.
The 60 satellites visible in Europe were launched in March, but their current position makes them easier to see.
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- SpaceX
Weather and orbital position of satellites can make it difficult to predict exactly when a satellite will “pass” again.
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- A December Starlink train.
But enthusiasts are using apps and websites to track the position of the satellites, and there will be more “passes” this week that will be visible from the UK.
A spokesperson for the Meteorological Office said weather conditions were expected to be clear for the UK on Tuesday night, although those in large cities may have difficulty detecting satellites.
The Find Starlink site allows you to enter your location and try to time your nighttime observation for the best chance of spotting the satellite train.
Finding Starlink is popular with amateur star gazing fans.
It also displays a live map, which tracks the current position of the Starlink satellites.
According to the site, people in Western Europe can expect another sighting on Tuesday night and throughout the week.
An enthusiast recommends taking 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark for the best chance of spotting satellites, as well as the long-awaited Lyrid meteor shower.
However, astronomers have said that the visibility of Starlink satellites is not necessarily a good thing.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, modeled the potential impact of hundreds of Starlink satellites on the night sky.
He predicted BI in March that people would observe satellite chains moving with the naked eye. “They will be almost the same as the weakest stars you can tell. But I still think it’s going to be dramatic,” he said at the time. “One or two wouldn’t notice, but 200 are fading in the sky? You’ll start to notice that the sky is swimming.”
And although Elon Musk claims that Starlink will have a “zero” impact in the field of astronomy, McDowell and other experts disagree.
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