{"id":488829,"date":"2026-02-21T00:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488829\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:57:12","slug":"bright-lights-over-vancouver-island-were-starlink-satellites-astronomer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488829\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright lights over Vancouver Island were Starlink satellites: Astronomer"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a clear, chilly night over Vancouver Island on Thursday, many Islanders were intrigued after spotting bright lights flying across the sky.<\/p>\n

Reports of the lights came in from Victoria to Nanaimo to the San Juan Islands, Wash. and beyond, and theories about what they were quickly poured on.<\/p>\n

Dave Balam, an astronomer with National Research Council Canada and a principal investigator with Space Guard Canada \u2013 has confirmed the lights were part of a SpaceX Starlink launch on Feb. 19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says he tracked the trajectory and confirmed that the Starling G10-36 travelled over Vancouver Island just after 7 p.m., around the time the sightings were reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the very first orbit after launch,\u201d he told CHEK News on Friday.<\/p>\n

A video posted to social media <\/a>showed the lights flying over Nanaimo.<\/p>\n

\"\"The lights are pictured over Victoria around 7 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2026. (Reddit\/lookatyourwatchnow)\"\"The lights are pictured over Esquimalt around 7 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2026. (Reddit\/Ill-Perspective-5510)\"\"The lights are pictured over Esquimalt around 7 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2026. (Reddit\/Ill-Perspective-5510)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time that Starlink satellites have been spotted over Vancouver Island<\/a>, raising attention and questions.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the sheer number of satellites in low orbit, like Starlink satellites, has started to raise issues of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know there\u2019s 9,764 Starlight satellites in lower orbit right now?\u201d said Balam.<\/p>\n

He says the number of satellites and debris causes issues both on Earth and in the skies above.<\/p>\n

For astronomers like Balam, the satellites are increasingly blocking photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tracking what we call \u2018flying couches,\u2019 very small asteroids, and we tried to get long exposure and we literally had hundreds of satellite trails blocking our field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Satellite trails are shown crossing this two minute exposure image obtained with the 0.76-m Schmidt telescope at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (University of Calgary) last summer. Balam says you can fit the full moon into this image four times, and that longer exposure shots are filled with hundreds of satellite trails. (Dave Balam)<\/p>\n

In the sky, Balam says he\u2019s concerned a cascading crash of debris will inevitably occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what I think is going to happen is that, low Earth orbit is so crowded these days, that there\u2019s going to be a collision, and that\u2019s going to cascade into other collisions,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to end up with a ringed planet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that such cascading crashes have already occurred, and will increase in frequency and scale as the Earth\u2019s orbit gets more crowded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a Chinese satellite hit a booster and started a cascade of debris, so it broke into thousands of pieces, and you have to keep in mind that these things are travelling at 18,000 kilometres an hour,\u201d said Balam.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all of a sudden you get a massive debris stream out there,\u201d he said. Debris can damage things like the International Space Station or endanger the lives of astronauts if they collide.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a tiny little fleck of paint is like firing a bullet,\u201d said Balam. \u201cIt\u2019ll puncture a space suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The countless satellites overhead could even cause global concerns.<\/p>\n

If an asteroid seems to be heading towards Earth, satellite trails could obscure images of it that could help measure its size.<\/p>\n

A similar incident happened to Balam earlier this year when he was tracking an asteroid with his Nasa-built telescope in Calgary, \u201cbut unfortunately a satellite trail went through it and I [couldn\u2019t] measure it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Balam thinks it\u2019s possible that Earth will develop a ring of space debris, he says such a thing would happen over the long-term and not within our lifetime.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018Building blocks of the solar system\u2019: Central Saanich astronomer names asteroid after \u2018Saanich\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a clear, chilly night over Vancouver Island on Thursday, many Islanders were intrigued after spotting bright lights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-488829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}