'What is that?' Strange line of lights in sky mystifies people across Triangle

Did you see an unusual string of lights in the sky last night?

People across the Triangle area and beyond sent WRAL News photos of strange lights in the sky overnight, many with the same question: What is that?

One viewer from Apex said they were walking their dogs around 9:23 p.m. on Thursday when they "spotted this event in the sky."

"What it a UFO? A comet?" they asked. "I'm curious what this celestial event might be."

Another person said they saw the lights around 9:30 p.m., describing them as a "very long string of lights moving across the sky."

One person described the lights as similar to a centipede. Meanwhile, another said the lights flashed in a perfect line and moved at a fast speed.

"I went inside to show my family, and when I came back outside it was gone," they said.

Viewers sent photos and videos from across central NC.

So what was the mysterious string of lights dotting its way across the sky? It was a series of satellites from StarLink, visible in the sky around 9:30 p.m. last night.

The satellites move in a cluster and help with internet connections and mobile communications around the world. There were actually 56 desk-sized satellites moving in a line, released in a batch from SpaceX early Thursday morning from Kennedy Space Center.

"These desk sized satellites can appear in a line soon in the day or two after launch, in the hours after sunset or before sunrise. They will spread out evenly around the Earth as their orbits are raised over the coming week and will not be seen again," explains WRAL's NASA Ambassador Tony Rice.