Do Satellites Blink In The Sky

Satellites do not have their own lights that make them visible.

Do satellites blink in the sky.

If you ve looked up at the night sky recently you might have been surprised to see a train of bright lights moving. No satellites don t have blinking lights. The satellite will look like a star steadily moving across the sky for a few minutes. If the lights are blinking you probably are seeing a plane not a satellite.

Most come with blue and red these days high intensity green leds are a bit more expensive to manufacture but some still do have red gre. Planes however do have blinking lights. Many satellites do not have a constant brightness they give off flashes at usually regular times. To do that the company will need to launch nearly 40 000 low orbit satellites in the next decade according to fox19 now meteorologist steve horstmeyer.

In the middle of the night you can t see them. Starlink satellites seen after the first launch in may 2019. This flashing behavior is caused by the rotation of the satellite around its rotation axis. Those end up looking more like bright stars if you see them at all.

The satellite s metallic surfaces act as mirrors for the sun specular reflection. What you will see is sunlight being reflected off the satellite often off the large solar arrays that provide power. If you see a moving blinking light in the sky at night it is most likely a plane. The only times satellites are visible to the naked eye are around dusk and dawn when it is fairly dark but sunlight reflects off of them.