Starlink Train

A Starlink train is the striking string-of-pearls formation of dozens of SpaceX satellites, launched together and briefly visible moving in a tight, evenly spaced line across the night sky before spreading out to their operational orbits over the following days and weeks. Launches have occurred regularly since 2019, and the trains have become, by a wide margin, among the most commonly reported "UFO" sightings on Earth in the years since, driving a measurable spike in Nocturnal Light and Formation report categories across UFO reporting databases including NUFORC's own submission logs. The visual effect genuinely does look startling and unfamiliar to someone unaware of what they're seeing: a perfectly straight line of evenly spaced, silently moving lights crossing the sky bears little resemblance to the aircraft, planets, or single satellites most casual observers are used to identifying, which is exactly why misidentification rates for Starlink trains run so high even among generally careful witnesses. Astronomers and satellite trackers now publish public pass-prediction schedules specifically to help both researchers and witnesses rule Starlink trains out quickly, and the phenomenon is now treated by serious ufologists as the single largest driver of report-volume inflation in the current decade, the direct modern successor to earlier eras' Chinese-lantern and weather-balloon misidentification waves.