Many residents in different parts of the United States (US) have mistaken the low-flying satellites launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX as unidentified flying objects (UFOs) after witnessing a string of lights lobbed across the sky.
The US residents in different parts have left confused after watching a string of lights across the sky on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.
According to local media reports, the residents reported the unusual lights to be UFOs in their calls to TV stations from Texas to Wisconsin.
According to TMZ, a person tweeted, “Did anyone else see a strand of moving lights above Los Angeles tonight?” … followed by an alien emoji.
However, professional stargazers have quickly resolved the mystery of UFOs and lamented the industrialisation of space after the latest satellites’ launch by SpaceX last week as part of their Starlink internet service.
Astronomy experts said the objects became identifiable due to the number of lights and their distance from the Earth.
“The way you can tell they are Starlink satellites is they are like a string of pearls, these lights travelling in the same basic orbit, one right after the other,” Dr Richard Fienberg, press officer for the American Astronomical Society, was quoted as saying by Associated Press.
He added that the satellites were launched in large groups called constellations string.
SpaceX has reportedly launched dozens of satellites this month as it plans to bring internet access to all the underserved areas of the world. It emerged that about 1,500 satellites have been sent into orbit, whereas, the firm sought permission to launch a thousand more.
Fienberg added there is no real regulation of light pollution from satellites. But SpaceX has already worked to mitigate the issue by creating visits that dampen the satellites’ reflection of sunlight.
“We can’t say this is wrong and you have to stop because the point is to provide internet access to the whole globe. It’s an admirable goal, that we would support if it didn’t mean giving up something else… the night sky,” said Fienberg.
People in Washington and Oregon had also reacted to the lights and also figured aliens were invading.
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