Lucknow, Sep 13: Sky gazers across the Uttar Pradesh region were left a little intrigued on Monday evening as a string of bright lights were seen rocketing across the sky.
Local people from Malihabad in the Lucknow district of UP witnessed a rare astronomical event as they saw strange mysterious lights in the sky during the evening hours. This wasn't an alien invasion.
The video was shared on various social media platforms shows a 'train of light', blinking and moving at a constant speed. While netizens were quick to conclude that it might be a result of refraction, some users said that it was 'strange'.
#UttarPradesh#viral#viralvideo
— Kaustuva R Gupta (@KaustuvaRGupta) September 12, 2022
The #bizarreline of dotted lights in the sky was witnessed by the locals in #Shravasti, #Hardoi, #Lucknow, and #Kanpur on Monday Late Night 🌃#kaustuva#BREAKING pic.twitter.com/ya1PMftLP0
The video has gone viral on various social media platforms. So, what's going on?
But fear not. These lights are actually satellites, launched into space by the U.S. company SpaceX, Elon Musk.
#UttarPradesh#viral#viralvideo
— Kaustuva R Gupta (@KaustuvaRGupta) September 12, 2022
The #bizarreline of dotted lights in the sky was witnessed by the locals in #Shravasti, #Hardoi, #Lucknow, and #Kanpur on Monday Late Night 🌃#kaustuva#BREAKING pic.twitter.com/ya1PMftLP0
The string of bright lights is believed to be the Starlink-59 (4-20) satellite mission that were launched earlier this week by SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida, USA. It is a sight that has become increasingly common over the years.
Deployment of 34 Starlink satellites confirmed
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 11, 2022
This is a project by SpaceX to launch thousands of satellites into orbit, and beam the internet to Earth from space. SpaceX hopes to use this to fund missions to Mars.
According to the Find Starlink website, the satellites soared over the Lucknow's sky at 7.08 pm on Monday night.
The Find Starlink website says the satellites will be visible from Lucknow again tonight (13 Sep, 2022) from 7:26 pm for four minutes. While the Starlink Tracker moilbe app says poor visibility for the satellites will be on Monday evening at 5.48pm looking from west to north.