A row of lights in the sky? It may be a Starlink satellite train

4 min read

Ten to twenty identical points of light move one behind the other, in a straight line, silently, and then disappear one by one. Someone seeing this for the first time might think of a UFO fleet; in reality it is probably a train of freshly launched Starlink satellites.

What does it look like?

Points of light in a straight line, at equal or nearly equal distances from each other, like a string of pearls or the windows of a train.
Identical, steady white light, which does not blink. The points are roughly as bright as medium-bright stars.
They move straight and steadily, without changing direction or accelerating. They cross the sky in a few minutes.
Complete silence. No sound accompanies them.
They fade out one by one. At one end of the row the points disappear one after another, as if they were "going out."
They are visible one to two hours after sunset, or before dawn, and only in the few days following the launch, at most one to two weeks.

Why does it look like this?

SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket almost every week, carrying 20–30 Starlink satellites at once (60 in the early launches). The satellites are placed in a low orbit of about 270–350 kilometers, where at first they orbit closely one behind the other. This row is what we see as a "train."

The satellites themselves do not glow: they reflect sunlight. When the Sun has already set where we are, the satellites traveling several hundred kilometers up are still lit by sunlight. By our own calculation, a satellite passing overhead at an altitude of 300 kilometers is still illuminated by the Sun even when the Sun is 17 degrees below the horizon. In Hungary this lasts roughly one and a half to two hours after sunset. That is why the satellites are visible after dusk and before dawn, but not around midnight.

When the row enters Earth's shadow, the points disappear one after another. Many people describe this as the objects having gone out or having vanished into thin air.

After launch, the satellites gradually raise themselves to a higher orbit (about 340–560 kilometers) using their own ion thrusters, spreading out along their orbit in the process, and they angle their solar panels so that they reflect less light toward Earth. After a few days, at most one to two weeks, the train breaks up, and the satellites are barely visible or not visible at all to the naked eye.

The satellites are still lit by sunlight when the observer is already in darkness. As the row enters Earth's shadow, the points disappear one after another. Sky Glitch chart

Why is it misleading?

The row is unusual. A single satellite or airplane is a familiar sight, but a dozen identical points in a straight line looks completely alien.
No sound, no blinking. Something too quiet and too steady to be an airplane is easy to take for an "unknown craft."
The disappearance. The points do not dip below the horizon; they "go out" in the middle of the sky. Someone who does not know about Earth's shadow finds this mysterious.
Many people see it at once. A train passes over an entire country, so hundreds of reports can come in during a single evening. The many matching accounts seem credible, even though people saw the same thing.

Real cases

The Netherlands, 2019. A few hours after the launch of the first 60 Starlink satellites, a "train of stars" passed across the Dutch sky. More than 150 reports were submitted to the Dutch UFO reporting website. An amateur satellite observer, Marco Langbroek, was waiting for the pass with a camera.
Prince George, Canada. A local resident filmed a straight line of lights in front of his house, which prompted several UFO reports. The local press looked into it: the line of lights was a Starlink train.
Ten thousand satellites. In March 2026, the number of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth exceeded ten thousand, according to the count of astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. Although most of them are no longer visible to the naked eye, every new launch means another train.

How can you check?

Note the exact time and direction. From which direction did the row come, and where was it heading?
Check the Find Starlink website. findstarlink.com shows when and in which direction a fresh Starlink train is visible over your town. You can also check retroactively whether there was a pass at a given time.
Check the Heavens-Above website. It lists passes of satellites and the International Space Station, also retroactively.
Check SpaceX's launches. If there was a Starlink launch in the days before the sighting, the explanation is almost certain.

Quick identifiers

Many identical points of light in a straight line
They do not blink, no sound
They move steadily, in a straight line
They disappear one by one, in the middle of the sky
After sunset or before dawn, in the days following a fresh launch