Did You See The Light Show Last Night?

News Staff • December 22, 2024

"Could have been meteors of Starlink"

Gulf Shores News

UPDATE: NASA has confirmed the streaking fireball observed around the Gulf Coast Saturday night was the reentry of the GaoJing 1= 02 Chinese Satellite, a defunct earth-imaging satellite.


Thousands of people across the Southeast reported seeing a brilliant streak through the sky late Saturday.


Around 10 p.m., videos posted on social media showed a cluster of fiery objects traveling slowly over Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee.


Several reports state the fireballs were likely Starlink satellite 3288 burning up as they reentered Earth's atmosphere. Others suspected it was a group of small meteors entering the atmosphere.


Erica Thomas of 1819 News reported that according to Starlink, its satellites are in a low orbit, allowing for lower latency. While over 6,000 Starlink satellites are currently orbiting Earth, they typically reenter the atmosphere within five years.


A user on Reddit recorded a clip of the fiery objects fling across the skies:


Starlink satellite 3288 was launched on Dec. 18, 2021. It is no longer available to view on NORAD's satellite tracker. According to available data, between 200 and 400 tracked objects reenter Earth's atmosphere each year, with most of them burning up completely due to the intense heat generated during reentry; only a small number of larger objects might survive and reach the ground, typically landing in sparsely populated areas or oceans.


NASA estimates 17.6 million pounds − or 8,800 tons − worth of objects are in Earth orbit, according to its most current Orbital Debris Quarterly News. And the number of small satellites is expected to increase. About 44 tons of space debris falls into Earth's atmosphere each day. About 95% of it burns up.


Kenneth Moore of Oyster Bay recorded a video of what the event looked like in the local area:

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