Iridium Flare, the beautiful beams of flashing light seen occasionally from the Earth
The Earth is surrounded by the moon, a natural satellite and thousands of artificial satellites sent by man, some of which can be observed during a dark night. These satellites usually appear as dimmer points of light that move against the backdrop of brighter stars. However, mostly, they are invisible to the naked eye.
One such collection of artificial satellites is the Iridium satellite, which can occasionally be seen from the Earth during both day and night. You might mistake them for shooting stars or meteor showers but these beams of light have a source of their own, the Sun. In fact, there are short flashes of sunlight which bounce off from this satellite and are referred to as Iridium Flares. Let’s throw some more light on these satellites!
History of Iridium satellites
The first constellation of Iridium satellites was conceived in the 1990s to enable reliable satellite communications at high Earth latitudes. Calculations showed that 77 satellites would be needed for the same. Thus, the name Iridium was given. Iridium is a natural element of atomic number 77 found on Earth! Smart, isn’t it?
However, when these were actually launched by the USA in the late 1950s, there were only 66 satellites needed for complete coverage of the entire planet Earth!
Today, these Iridium satellites orbit around the Earth in roughly 100 minutes, at the speed of 27000 kilometres per hour All these satellites are interlinked and are predominantly used by the military, air traffic control, satellite phones and pagers. The satellites are endowed with solar panels and a set of antennae. At present, newer next-generation Iridium satellites are being set up to replace the ageing fleet. As per several sources, they’ll be known as ‘Iridium NEXT.’ In fact, some of the satellites have already been launched through SpaceX rockets.
Iridium Flares or light reflections?
When each Iridium satellite orbits the Earth, it reflects sunlight towards a small area on the planet due to the shape of its antennae. This reflection is perceived from the Earth as a flash of light, also known as an Iridium Flare. Momentarily, it is the brightest object that you will see in the night sky, or even during the day!
The Flare appears identical to a meteor flashing light in comparison to the speed as well as length. However, they only last a few seconds, like short bursts of light beams in the sky. Nevertheless, science can sometimes create incidental phenomena that look quite magical, isn't it?