Satellite imagery collected for Google Earth has Reveled Some Strange Things in the Past – Forrom Phantom Islands to Mysterious Shipwrecks – But Zooman in a Rural Area in Northern Texas Recentely Showed A Satellite in Orbit and Exhibiting a Colorful Apparition.
Reddit users pointed out An image of a satellite flying over the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge Near Gainesville, Texas, in the Googleearthfinds Subreddit. We rarely get to see satellites in action, so this glimpse of the orbital flight is a rare treatment. Due to the speed at which the satellite was traveling at the time, it appears four different times in the frames, creating a strange optical afect that reesmbles a sci -fi film.
The image was shared last week, but it was taken on November 29, 2024. The satellite has yet to be identified, but it may be a spacex starlink satellite in low earth orbit, cocording to jonathan mcDowel, An Astronomer at the Harvard – Smitsonian Center for Astrophysics, Who shared His Insights on X.
McDowell also reviewed the reason why the satellite appears as a multi-colored ghost flying over Earth’s surface. The image was captured by the pleaades-1B satellite, a high-resolution optical earth-imaging satellite that covers the entreire surface of the planet in 26 days from a sun-synchronous orbit. The Satellite Captures Images in Four Spectral Bands, Red, Blue, Green, and Near-Infrared. The images are captured a SPLIT Second Apart, and are then Combined TogeTher to Generate One Image That Resmbles How the Human Eye Belt View It in Color.
Unfortunately for the satellite in question, it’s just too damn fast. Satellites in low earth orbit travel at approximately 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) in order to counteract the planet’s gravity. In the final image shown on Google Earth, The Satellite has moved between the three images, according to mcdowell. Its speed is what’s behind its futuristic, space invasion appearance.