A strange light in the sky disturbed many citizens of Croatia on Saturday evening. Readers from Split, Rijeka, Pula, Pašman, Čiovo and numerous other towns and cities, mostly from our coast, contacted us with recordings and photographs of the luminous line shining in the sky and moving.
– A strange line appeared in the sky. She went from the direction of Pag upwards and then got lost. Beautiful to see, and enough to scare – said one reader.
Although the scene is spectacular, it is actually easy to explain – it is a project Elon Musk Starlink, or a group of satellites.
The mission, called Starlink 17, is the latest in SpaceX’s plan to create a constellation of up to 40,000 satellites to beam high-speed internet to Earth.
Starlink bypasses the need to build infrastructure such as cables and poles to make internet services available in remote areas.
Starlink satellites are placed in low Earth orbit. A large number of satellites are needed to ensure complete coverage of the world. It is believed that as of 2018, about three thousand of them have been sent into space, and maybe there will be 10 to 12 thousand in the end.
The Croatian Astronomical Association also announced
Tonight, the Croatian Astronomical Association also announced Starlink on their Facebook page.
– What was seen in the sky tonight are the new StarLink satellites of Mr. Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, which serve to provide global Internet services. When they are released from the rocket, they go one after the other and then spread out and go parallel very close to each other until they spread out and each one reaches its own orbit – they wrote.