CURIOUS MIND: It’s a meteor, it’s a UFO, it’s a… satellite.

Q: I have seen a string of lights in the sky. What is it?

A: “It is almost certainly a set of recently launched Starlink satellites,” said Chris Anderson, coordinator for the Centennial Observatory at the Herrett Center for Arts & Science at the College of Southern Idaho. “The easiest way to confirm this is by visiting www.heavens-above.com and entering your location. It will tell you when satellites were/will be visible from that location, including Starlink.”

Starlink is a satellite network developed by SpaceX to provide internet to remote locations, launching since 2019.

“At this point, there are literally thousands of them in orbit. However, they are only visible in ‘trains’ shortly after they launch. They are first placed into a low orbit in a line when they are visible. Then, they are boosted to higher orbits where they are not visible to the unaided eye (and no longer so close to one another),” Anderson said. The satellites appear as a string of pearls or a train of bright lights.

Space.com reported a Starlink satellite has a lifespan of approximately five years and SpaceX eventually hopes to have as many as 42,000 satellites in orbit. As of July 2023, there are 4,519 Starlink satellites.

Anderson said “The link provided is probably one of the better ways to know when a Starlink train is visible. But SpaceX is launching them every few weeks, so it’s not difficult to see them if you know when to look.”

Recently, Starlink G7-10 launched successfully on Jan. 14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Another launch was Jan. 15 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

According to Heavens Above, satellites are only visible when they are lit by the sun, but the observer on the ground is already in darkness. They are normally only visible a few hours after sunset, or before sunrise.

The brightness of a spacecraft is influenced by several factors, including its size, orientation, reflectivity of its surfaces, distance from the observer, and the angle between the sun, spacecraft, and observer, reported the web site.