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February 3, 2026 \u2014 9:14am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n A satellite believed to be owned by Elon Musk lit up Victorian skies and dazzled early risers when it re-entered Earth\u2019s atmosphere as space junk on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n The space junk, which early indications suggest is one of Musk\u2019s SpaceX Starlink satellites, blazed across the sky about 5.27am, leaving behind a flaming orange trail flecked with green. Many Melburnians thought they had witnessed a slow-motion meteor.<\/p>\n However, Associate Professor Michael Brown, of Monash University\u2019s school of physics and astronomy, said there were telltale signs it was a space junk re-entry instead.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was coming in almost horizontally, and coming in pretty slowly compared to, say, a meteor, which gave people plenty of time to get their mobile phone out and get some footage and perhaps say profanities as the thing came in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related Article Starlink satellites, which provide internet connections, orbit in space at a relatively low altitude of 500 kilometres and therefore experience strong atmospheric drag. When the satellites\u2019 engines give out, they are dragged back into the atmosphere over the course of months or years, where the friction of reentry causes them to burst into flames spectacularly.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are internet satellites that [Musk\u2019s company] SpaceX has been launching many thousands of in recent years, and the first ones that they launched a few years ago are now past their prime and are starting to come down in increasing numbers,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo these satellites re-enter somewhere over the globe, pretty much every day, and we had one of them reenter over Victoria early this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Astronomer at Swinburne University Alan Duffy said space junk travels at about seven kilometres per second during reentry, which is three to four times slower than a meteor. In video on social media, the satellite can be seen leaving behind multiple molten trails that contain a greenish tinge, both also clear indicators that it is space junk, not a meteor.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see the piece breaking up into multiple fireballs and trails, that tells you this is a large object, so much so that it can break up and still have visible separate components burning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe different material types \u2013 metals and plastic, typically you find in a satellite or in a rocket housing \u2013 burn and give different colours, that\u2019s quite literally the chemical constituents burning up in the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n Space junk is usually entirely burnt up in the atmosphere and rarely poses a risk to people on Earth.<\/p>\n Satellite reentries are becoming increasingly common \u2013 particularly Musk\u2019s Starlinks \u2013 due to a large increase in the number of launches in recent years.<\/p>\n Related Article Duffy said this meant low-orbit areas of space were becoming crowded and there is a risk of space junk colliding while in orbit, which would create a knock-on effect of breaking up other objects in orbit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have that challenge already in some orbits where we\u2019re very close to that tipping point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd once that happens, it means you can\u2019t use those orbits for years, decades, perhaps even centuries, depending on where they are, unless you actively clean them up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other challenge is \u2026 we use it for a range of different needs, from communication to Earth observation, weather monitoring and human habitation in terms of the space station. So it\u2019s a very crowded, very prized patch of real estate, and with all of those satellites operating up there, contesting for those orbits, it\u2019s becoming quite a challenge to literally navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n Duffy said private companies should be strictly regulated to ensure they conduct business responsibly.<\/p>\n Brown said the growth in satellite launches had created a pollution risk \u201cbecause you\u2019re basically dumping a lot of stuff from these satellites in the upper atmosphere\u201d and could contaminate Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is sort of a very developing area, and one that\u2019s potentially of significant long-term concern.\u201d<\/p>\n The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Make](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e51749ededd2bfca04c55b81d546bf6c97fc6116.jpeg\")
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Scientists believe the space junk was a SpaceX starlink satellite. SpaceX<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1e1f477e72bf6fd4477574f5501a9a3bf6fb71a9.gif\")
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Photo: Matt Golding<\/p>\n![\"Angus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770115633_115_9074e55c39477e8cc871ddc5bc231809f9f522a3.png\")
Angus Delaney<\/a> is a reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 3, 2026 \u2014 9:14am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-271692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}