A SpaceX Starlink internet satellite has entered the atmosphere and spectacularly disintegrated, creating a stunning sight in the night sky over the Midwestern United States. Its fall created a dazzling fireball, illuminating the darkness.
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Observers from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois witnessed the burning end of a Starlink satellite as it disintegrated in atmosphere on Tuesday night, January 28. They excitedly rushed to capture and share videos of the spectacular phenomenon.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who tracks satellite re-entries, wrote in X that the space debris was a SpaceX Starlink satellite 5693, which had been slowly falling out of orbit since December 6.
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The Starlink satellite re-entry sparked at least 62 reports to the American Meteor Society, which shared images and photos of the event from witnesses. In one video, captured by observer John Aubert of Crystal Lake, Illinois, the fireball passes over the roof of a house.
Starlink 5693 was one of thousands of Starlink internet satellites that SpaceX launched into orbit as part of a global satellite mega-constellation, designed to provide high-speed internet services across the Earth.
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SpaceX typically launches Starlink satellites in batches of 20 or more. They are designed to last about five years in low Earth orbit before falling and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. At the end of their lives, Starlink satellites use electric thrusters to lower themselves to an altitude of about 250 kilometers, where atmospheric drag slows them further until they fall out of space, said . The process takes about a week.
Source: space.com
