It looked like a Christmas garland, or even Santa's sleigh. A series of luminous points were visible in the sky in the four corners of the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes on the evening of Thursday November 28around 7 p.m.
The strange phenomenon aroused the curiosity of many Internet users who immortalized this “constellation” to publish it on social networks or to contact our editorial staff.
In reality, it was neither a UFO nor the arrival of Santa Claus before his time.
This mysterious caterpillar of light corresponds to a flotilla of satellites belonging to the company SpaceX for the Starlink project, owned by the fanciful boss of X and Tesla Elon Musk, newly appointed to Donald Trump's next government.
What is “Starlink”?
Starlink is a gigantic satellite system developed in 2015 with the aim of providing high-speed internet connection to the most isolated regions on Earth.
The “Starlink constellation” is thus made up of thousands of telecommunications satellites currently in orbit. Ultimately, SpaceX plans to ship no fewer than 42,000 in order to cover the entire planet…
How to see these satellites pass?
There are in particular Satellite Trackerwhich allows satellites to be located and identified but also to follow their trajectory.
L’application Sky Tonight allows you to obtain information about the current position of Elon Musk's satellites. Same thing for Star Walk 2.
Finally, the findstarlink site allows you to check the passage of a satellite train. The opportunity to verify that it was Starlink-122 which passed through the Riviera sky around 7 p.m. for precisely 4 minutes.
