Space debris lights up Calgary sky

Calgarians looking up around 8 p.m. Thursday may have noticed some unusual lights streaking across the night sky. Photos and videos of a group of lights filled social media, with those who captured the moment left wondering what they saw.

“It was from one end of the sky to the other,” said Forrest Hyslop, who was able to record video of the lights from his acreage northwest of Calgary. “It was pretty fantastic to see. I’ve seen shooting stars and stuff like that but initially I didn’t know what it was because it just lasted, it kept lasting.”

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Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell believes the lights were those of Starlink 1723, which was launched in 2020. The satellite was removed from the Starlink constellation in October of last year and has been slowly de-orbiting since mid-January. McDowell says its path of re-entry was set to pass just south of Calgary Thursday night.

Calgarians can expect to see more of these events, with 9,000 satellites currently being tracked, all of which will eventually come back to Earth, burning up and putting on a light show as they re-enter the atmosphere.