It is an image that is really not trivial: on Google Earth, Internet users discovered an earth view which was photobmused by a satellite. This one goes so quickly that his image gave rise to a chromatic decomposition.
This is an expression that you have certainly already crossed on the internet, or heard on any occasion. When someone gets into a photo, voluntarily or not, it is said that it is a “photobombing”. This intrusion aims to spoil the atmosphere of the cliché a little, making the clothy, in the foreground, or everything behind.
You probably have examples of humans or animals in mind. But have you ever seen a satellite photobombage? We had a recent example on Google Earth, the earth visualization software from the sky. This oddity was shared these days on Reddit and on X (ex-Twitter).
Starlink photobombing on Google Earth
On the image that circulated in April, there is a vague form – or rather, four blurred silhouettes – in the middle of a natural setting. It is in fact a satellite whose passage was seized by another satellite which evolved on a higher orbit. By being attentive, one distinguishes the central body of the machine and, on each side, its long solar panels.
Obvious feature of the scene: the satellite appears in fact four times in a sort of chromatic decomposition (red, blue, green and white). A defect of the objective of the satellite that immortalized the scene? Rather the consequence of the relative speed of the satellite photographed from the sensor, and the functioning of it.
As this publication on Reddit shows, the very unusual photo was taken above Texas and many wondered what this satellite could well and, incidentally, what was the one behind the cliché. The collective intelligence of Internet users and the Internet have resolved these two mysteries.
As the astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell sums it up, which is affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, the satellite which has photobombé Google Earth is one of the very many devices belonging to the Starlink constellation, operated by SpaceX. It would even be precisely copy 31147.
-In fact, this photobombing is not frankly not surprising, given the growing number of satellites evolving around the earth. There are not far from 12,000 today, and more than half belongs to Starlink. In fact, this has the effect of increasing the probability of appearing on the shots of an earth observation satellite.
An image captured by a French satellite
According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, moreover, the photo is to be credited to the Pléiades-1b satellite, which is operated by the French space agency (CNES-National Center for Spatial Studies). Launched in December 2012, it is 695 km above sea level. In comparison, Starlink evolves below, 200 km below (the model mentioned is 500 km).
« The Pleiades-1b satellite takes red, blue, then green-satellite below (supposedly the Starlink 31147) moved between the three images. I calculated that the image was taken around 5:19 p.m. on November 29, 2024 “Consives Jonathan McDowell, like others. The Starlink 31147 satellite was orbit on December 29, 2023.
As for the decor in which all this takes place, it has been noted that it is the national fauna refuge Hagerman, which is in the county of Grayson, in northern Texas. It is also possible to observe the trace left by Starlink directly on Google Earth, going to these contact details on Maps.
The visual artifact left by the satellite also recalls the speeds at stake. A Starlink satellite, for example, must spin at more than 7 km/s to stay in the air and not fall back to earth. An extremely lively look compared to the ground but also compared to Pléiades-1B, which has its own velocity and its own trajectory.
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