The possibility of seeing the train of lights in the sky of Jordan on Wednesday, represented by satellites launched by the Falcon 9 missile

Weather of Arabia - The head of the Jordanian Astronomical Society, Ammar Al-Sakji, revealed, on Sunday, the possibility of seeing moving bright points in succession from the sky of Jordan and with the naked eye on Wednesday, July 19 at 8:57 pm, for a period of five minutes, representing the launch of the Falcon 9 missile into space from Florida base on Sunday morning. July 15th.

Al-Sakji said, in a statement, that the missile carries with it 54 satellites from the Star Link system of the second generation of satellite Internet No. 92, the G5-15 group.

He pointed out that seeing the bright spots will be by looking to the northwest at an azimuthal angle of 304 degrees, and this swarm of satellites continues moving to the east and at an azimuth angle of 105 degrees, and when it enters the field it is at an elevation angle of 10 degrees and mediates the sky at an elevation of 77 degrees and hides from the east at an angle 50 degrees, where the degree of luminosity will be 1.9, and it can be seen from all regions of Jordan, and it is preferable to areas that do not have light pollution in desert areas and rural areas, such as Wadi Rum and Azraq.

Starlink satellites

Over the past few days, citizens have seen a luminous train of satellites in the sky of Jordan and in various regions, where Al-Sakji indicated that these swarms of satellites that appear as bright points moving in a straight line, estimated at dozens, are the satellites of the Starlink satellite system that is affiliated with SpaceX. This system is for satellite communications and the Internet, as the Falcon 9 missile launches a group of satellites at once, and their number may reach about 60 satellites.

UFOs or satellites?

And social media has reported many questions that hundreds of citizens have seen in the sky of Jordan during the last period, about what these objects appear in the sky like a luminous train that moves for minutes in the sky and then disappears, and some thought that these satellites are UFOs because they move In low successive orbits at an altitude of about 550 km, visible to the naked eye shortly after launch, and then once the satellites have risen to operational altitude (designated orbits), they disperse and become more difficult to distinguish against the background of stars.

Problems and obstacles facing SpaceX

Al-Sakji added that this system, developed by SpaceX, may have a maximum number of 42,000 satellites in orbit, and there are now about 4,200 satellites in orbit, including 3,500 in service, and some international institutions and bodies have objected to these numbers, such as NASA and the Federation. The international astronomer considered that the Starlink system and its luminosity polluted the sky and hindered astronomical observation, measurements and astronomical research. Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, pledged to reduce the impact of this pollution by coating these satellites with materials that reduce the reflection of sunlight, in addition to improving the methods of movement and rotation of these satellites. industrial.

And he stressed that the Jordanian Astronomical Society follows up this system of satellites and visualizes it for documentary and research purposes, and for astronomy and photography enthusiasts and those interested in watching this swarm of satellites, the “Starlink G-6-5” system, which was launched a few days ago, appeared on Saturday over the sky of Jordan, July 15, 2023. It was seen with the naked eye at 8:16 pm Jordan time, and the astronomical society photographed it from the capital, Amman, where it remained moving in the sky for a few minutes from the northwest, reaching a maximum height of 88 degrees in the southwest side, and disappeared from the southeast.