A KHOU 11 viewer sent in the video asking what the mysterious string of lights in the night sky was.
BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas — Some Texas residents got a glimpse of an incredible sight in the sky.
KHOU 11 viewer Kim sent in a video taken Monday night in Brazoria County and asked us what the unusual string of moving lights was.
Based on the location and time of day, the string of lights appeared to be the SpaceX Starlink satellite train.
The trail of lights circles the globe providing wireless broadband coverage for high-speed internet access, usually in remote and rural areas.
Starlink said they plan on adding another 12,000 Starlink satellites that provide internet that they claim is 47% faster than the internet from fiber-optic cables.
Usually, the satellites travel too high in the sky to be seen, but as they travel from early and into their future orbit, the line of lights causes a stir on social media.
The train of light tends to travel as a string of 46 or more separate satellites, but their brightness in the night sky creates what’s called a mega constellation.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced Starlink in 2015, which quickly grew into more than 4,800 active satellites orbiting our planet. According to EarthSky, nearly 2,400 of the satellites are Starlink.
EarthSky also said each satellite weighs about 500 pounds and is the size of a coffee table. They travel at 340 miles so that they’re low enough to eventually get pulled down to Earth and burn up within a few years, limiting space junk.
Musk and Starlink aren’t alone, as Amazon also plans to have a space satellite network soon with Kuiper.