Lighting in the American sky shocks residents and annoys astronomers

Philadelphia Continuous lights across the night sky in some parts of the United States on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday surprised some as to whether UFOs’ plots were coming, but others – mostly amateur and professional astronomers – lamented the globalization of the world. Location.

The string of lights was actually a series of relatively low-flying satellites, launched by SpaceX this week Elon Musk, As part of your Starling web service. From Texas to Wisconsin, people completed telephone connections to television stations to report lights and incubation in UFOs.

The email sent to the SpaceX spokesman was not withdrawn Saturday, but astronomers say they were able to quickly identify the number of successive lights and their distance from Earth to see the Starling satellites.

“The way you can say they ‘are Starling satellites is that they’ are like strings of pearls, lights traveling in the same basic orbit, one after the other.”The doctor said Richard Feinberg, Journal Director of the American Astronomical Society.

Satellites orbiting in large clusters called galaxies attach themselves when in orbit, especially as soon as launched. The chain gets smaller as time goes on.

This month, SpaceX launched dozens of satellites. This is part of a plan to bring digital splits together and make the insecure parts of the world accessible to the Internet, with SpaceX planning to launch another 120 satellites temporarily this month. In total, the company has sent about 1,500 satellites into orbit and has asked permission to launch thousands.

But a few years ago, there might be a few hundred satellites orbiting the Earth that look like separate lights across the sky, Feinberg explained. Some other companies planning or launching satellite galaxies have not done so recently, and they are often further away from Earth, he said.

Feinberg’s team and others who represent amateur and professional astronomers do not like the proliferation of satellites that can obscure scientific data and destroy a clear night staring at the universe. The International Astronomical Union released a report in July 2019 expressing concern about several satellite launches.

“The system, in general, adopts the principle of a dark sky and is essential not only for advancing in understanding the universe we are part of without radio broadcasts, but also as a resource for all mankind,” wrote the team representative. Can cause problems on specialized research equipment such as capturing the first images.