BOISE, Idaho — Strings of lights moving together across the night sky in the Treasure Valley sparked wonder and speculation recently about what they could be.
Airplanes? Shooting stars? UFOs?
The answer, it turns out, is none of the above.
The lights are SpaceX satellites from the company’s Starlink network. Many people in the Boise area saw the satellites moving northeast across the sky shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday.
SpaceX says their satellites, which help provide Internet service, can periodically be seen clearly when they’re in perfect alignment with the sun to reflect light back towards the earth’s surface.
According to the company's online tracker, the satellites were visible in Idaho again just before 5 a.m. Friday morning. They will next be brightly visible - depending on weather conditions - at 9:26 p.m. Saturday night and 6:03 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The lights will move from the southwest to the northeast, and be visible for several minutes.
But the satellites might not be the only celestial objects that can be seen if you turn your eyes to the sky. The Lyrid meteor shower, which occurs in late April, is expected to hit its peak on Tuesday and Wednesday.