If your weather is clear this evening, we invite you to step outside and stare upward anytime from one to two hours after sundown.If you’re fortunate to be located well away from any bright lights, break out a long lounge or deck-chair and get comfortable. Once your eyes have fully adapted to the dark, you might be able to count several hundred stars of varying degrees of brightness.But you also may also see some other interesting sights, including the largest and brightest object now orbiting Earth: the International Space Station.Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see itPerhaps you’ll catch a glimpse of an extraterrestrial intruder; a sudden streak of light, lasting no more than a second or two at most and possibly leaving a brief incandescent trail in its wake.Ancient stargazers believed that such a sight was a star falling from its fixed position in the sky. We call these meteors today, although the term “falling star” and “shooting star” are still widely used. Such objects are usually particles no larger than a pebble or sand grain, that crash into our upper atmosphere at high speeds of up to 45 miles (72 km) per second; their kinetic energy is converted almost instantly to light creating the effect of a shooting star. Most meteors first appear at an altitude of 80 miles (130 km) and disappear about a second later at perhaps 40 miles (65 km).Then there are another group of intruders that have been with us since the start of the space age, some 67 years ago: Artificial satellites.Unlike meteors, they are far larger: Actually, man-made structures that circle our Earth and cruise in orbits around our home planet at average speeds of “only” 5 miles (8 km) per second.Perhaps the best visual description for a satellite was by the late veteran British satellite observer, Desmond King-Hele (1927-2019). In his excellent book, “Observing Earth Satellites” (Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1983), he wrote: “A satellite looks like a star that has taken leave of its senses and decided to move off to a …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnIf your weather is clear this evening, we invite you to step outside and stare upward anytime from one to two hours after sundown.If you’re fortunate to be located well away from any bright lights, break out a long lounge or deck-chair and get comfortable. Once your eyes have fully adapted to the dark, you might be able to count several hundred stars of varying degrees of brightness.But you also may also see some other interesting sights, including the largest and brightest object now orbiting Earth: the International Space Station.Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see itPerhaps you’ll catch a glimpse of an extraterrestrial intruder; a sudden streak of light, lasting no more than a second or two at most and possibly leaving a brief incandescent trail in its wake.Ancient stargazers believed that such a sight was a star falling from its fixed position in the sky. We call these meteors today, although the term “falling star” and “shooting star” are still widely used. Such objects are usually particles no larger than a pebble or sand grain, that crash into our upper atmosphere at high speeds of up to 45 miles (72 km) per second; their kinetic energy is converted almost instantly to light creating the effect of a shooting star. Most meteors first appear at an altitude of 80 miles (130 km) and disappear about a second later at perhaps 40 miles (65 km).Then there are another group of intruders that have been with us since the start of the space age, some 67 years ago: Artificial satellites.Unlike meteors, they are far larger: Actually, man-made structures that circle our Earth and cruise in orbits around our home planet at average speeds of “only” 5 miles (8 km) per second.Perhaps the best visual description for a satellite was by the late veteran British satellite observer, Desmond King-Hele (1927-2019). In his excellent book, “Observing Earth Satellites” (Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1983), he wrote: “A satellite looks like a star that has taken leave of its senses and decided to move off to a …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
