{"id":454852,"date":"2026-02-03T02:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454852\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:50:10","slug":"bright-light-seen-across-victorian-skies-believed-to-be-from-elon-musks-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454852\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright light seen across Victorian skies believed to be from Elon Musk&#8217;s satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victorian residents have been treated to a rare sight after space junk, believed to be from one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Elon Musk&#039;s\">Elon Musk&#8217;s<\/a> satellites, soared back into the earth&#8217;s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>The astronomical display initially looked like a meteor\ufeff illuminating the sky about 5.27am AEDT \u2013 but Melbourne astronomers quickly identified it as a piece of space junk.<\/p>\n<p>Observational Astronomer Associate Professor Michael Brown said the debris was likely a piece of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Musk&#039;s Starlink-5103\">Musk&#8217;s Starlink-5103<\/a> re-entering the sky.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f6b03ab2-49cb-4960-83b6-aed06d9d1b19.png\"   alt=\"Space junk in Melbourne\"\/>A resident in Mortlake in western Victoria sighted the satellite. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Starlink-5103 is a match in both position and being in the current TIP window,&#8221; amateur astronomer and scientist Marco Langbroek added in a post on Bluesky.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the simple explanation, early risers all over the state were still stunned to witness the piece of junk streak across the sky.<\/p>\n<p>Keen-eyed star\ufeffgazers filmed the satellite from multiple Victorian suburbs, including Hastings, Langwarrin, Sandringham and Mortlake.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/828639ee-3d78-4f75-bb08-878083c61d90.png\"   alt=\"Space junk in Melbourne\"\/>The debris was likely a piece of Musk&#8217;s Starlink-5103 re-entering the sky. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>There is an easy way to tell the difference between space junk and meteors.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffSpace junk from satellites typically travel at a slower pace, at around eight kilometres per second, and move almost horizontally.<\/p>\n<p>Meteors and shooting stars, meanwhile, can travel tens of kilometres per second.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>This comparatively leisurely pace means observers can capture space junk on camera.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>A growing number of satellites and space debris in orbit around Earth are impacting the night sky.<\/p>\n<p>As of December 2025, there were currently 9357 Starlink satellites \u2013 owned by billionaire Musk&#8217;s company SpaceX \u2013 in orbit.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/28a50f15-5b07-45e1-b117-c61df4966081.png\"   alt=\"Space junk seen in Melbourne\"\/>\ufeffSpace junk from satellites typically travel at a slower pace than meteors or shooting stars, (9News)<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink satellites orbit around 550 kilometres above the earth and are designed to stay in the sky for between five and seven years.<\/p>\n<p>Musk previously described Starlink as &#8220;rebuilding the internet in space&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian residents have been treated to a rare sight after space junk, believed to be from one of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-454852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}