A Monash University expert is available to comment on a satellite believed to be owned by Elon Musk which lit up Victorian skies early this morning when it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere as space junk.
Associate Professor Michael Brown, School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University Faculty of Science
Contact: +61 3 9903 4840 or media@monash.edu
The following can be attributed to Associate Professor Michael Brown:
“There was a space junk reentry over Victoria at 5:27am this morning that was witnessed by hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Victorians, with footage showing up on social media soon after.
“Telltale signs that this was space junk was its almost horizontal path across the sky, relatively slow speed and its gradual break up into many pieces. In contrast most meteors are visible for just a few seconds and they often plunge steeply into the atmosphere. The duration of space junk reentries means people have time to take photos and videos of the reentry and post them on social media.
“Marco Langbroek of Delft Technical University identified the satellite as Starlink-5103, one of the thousands of internet satellites that has been launched into low Earth orbit in the past few years by Elon Musk’s Space X.
“The increasing number of satellites means they are visible in the early evening on any clear night - appearing like stars and moving steadily from horizon to horizon. Satellite reentries are also becoming more common, particularly as large constellations of satellites are launched into low Earth orbit, with some satellites having lifetimes of just a few years before reentry.
“While relatively little debris from satellites reaches the ground, there are concerns that reentries are polluting the Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
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