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Thursday, December 12, 2024

Starry Spectacle: Ibiza and Formentera marvel at ‘Starlink’ satellite train in the night sky

This set of satellites is one of several thousand that SpaceX has been launching into space for several years

The launch of satellites from Elon Musk’s Starlink megaconstellation has become a constant and the appearance of ‘trains’ of satellites are now commonplace in Ibiza and Formentera, according to a communiqué from the Agrupació Astronòmica d’Eivissa (AAE). Last night, at 10:05 pm, one of these groups of artefacts could be seen streaking across the skies of the Pitiusas.

Specifically, as recorded by Agrupació Astronòmica d’Eivissa member Leto Orduñafrom the area of Cala de Boua strip of satellites could be seen crossing the sky in a west-east direction, at medium altitude, for a few minutes.

This set of satellites is part of the several thousand that SpaceX has been launching into space for some years and that are intended to improve telecommunications on Earth. However, at the same time, they pose a problem for astronomy, given the large number of artifacts that cross the sky, of which only a minority are visible to the naked eye, according to the AAE. For the time being3,505 have already been launched in only four or five years.

High brightness

The satellites spotted last night were launched last 10th aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 of these devices. They should reach low Earth orbit and until they do, they will be visible in high brightness for the next few days.

The satellites are released into space at an altitude of approximately 300 kilometers and from there they go describing orbits around the Earth until they reach a little more than 500 kilometers, where they are definitively located.

Today and tomorrow this line of satellites can still be seen from Ibiza and Formentera, cloud cover permitting.

For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.

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