Elon Musk named in UFO report as people keep on making the same mistake
Elon Musk has been named in The Pentagon's latest UFO report which has revealed hundreds of new unidentified and unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) sightings.
Its publication comes a day after White House legislators called for greater government transparency during a hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs – the government’s term for UFOs.
Hundreds of cases of misidentified everyday objects, as well as some that defy easy explanation, are included in the report.
One such incident includes as a near-miss between a commercial airliner and a mysterious object off the coast of New York.
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Investigators found explanations for nearly 300 UAP sightings and in many cases, the unknown objects were found to be balloons, birds, aircraft, drones or satellites.
And according to the report, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system is an increasingly common source of confusion, as people mistake chains of satellites for UFOs.
The satellites provide high-speed internet access to customers across 100 countries, including the US, UK and Australia.
Starlink uses small low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, positioned just 340 miles above surface level - so it's no wonder there are so many sightings.
In comparison, geostationary satellites favored by traditional internet providers sit at an altitude of around 22,236 miles.
There are currently more than 6,500 Starlink satellites above us, with another 24 launched into orbit by SpaceX earlier this week.
In the past, people have taken to Reddit to share their own Starlink satellite sightings.
On the Starlink subreddit, one American shared a video of a string of lights twinkling in the sky - similar to the photo above.
"Just saw Starlink and thought it was a goddamn UFO lmao," they added.
One person ominously responded: "It was a UFO...until you identified it as Starlink," as a second said: "It really is mind blowing. We are just so not used to something that far away and directly above us. It kind of plays tricks with your mind the first time you see it."
Others shared their own experiences of mistaking Starlink for UAPs, as one person shared: "Same I'm doordashing in Detroit. Just pulled over and was 1000% sure we were being invaded."
A second said: "We just saw it in Colorado. Out stargazing the telescope with my son. He saw it, and screamed 'WHAT IS THAT WHAT IS THAT' while crying. I thought we were all going to die before I realized it was Starlink."
A third added: "Saw in Athens TX last week. It was way brighter than the video lets on."
SpaceX previously said it plans to launch some 42,000 satellites in the future - so we could be seeing plenty more light up the night sky.
Ellie Kemp