Woman searching for Northern Lights in Watson Lake, Yukon, captures something even more exceptional
"I was like, this is like so surreal. Like there's no way this is real," said Cassandra Hanchar
One of the best things about living in the Yukon is witnessing the Northern Lights on a semi-regular basis.
For one Watson Lake woman, she got to see something way more exceptional while sky gazing on Wednesday night.
"I was outside looking for the Northern Lights that just happened to come out and I was looking to see if they were still out," said Cassandra Hanchar. "I was just standing there hoping to see something and I just happened to look up and there was this ... [it] looked like a meteor shower across the sky."
Hanchar did what anyone would do. She grabbed her cellphone and started recording.
She said the whole event lasted about 30 seconds before the sky went dark again.
At first, Hanchar said, she thought it could have been space debris, until her sister suggested it could be a meteor shower.
"I was like, this is like so surreal," Hanchar said. "The sky was lit up a little bit. Like an orange-y tint to it and then next thing you know it just faded away into the sky."
Christa Laerhoven, the president of the Yukon Astronomical Society, said after watching Hanchar's video and doing a bit of research herself, she is pretty sure what Hanchar saw wasn't a meteor shower.
"The way that it looks in the video looks a little bit more like a satellite re-entry than a meteor," Laerhoven said. "It is most likely a Starlink 5967, which was launched in April of 2023, It was predicted to re-enter on May 1st at three o'clock in the morning Yukon time."
Laerhoven said meteor sightings usually only last a few seconds at most, whereas satellites re-entering the atmosphere can be visible anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds.
Laerhoven said there's always a chance she could be wrong — but after watching tons of videos similar to Hanchar's, in this case it's more than likely a satellite.
"That's what seems likely to me," she said. "Given that it was slow enough for the videoer to capture it and that there was a predicted (satellite) re-entry that matches."
Regardless, Laerhoven called Hanchar's video amazing, and said witnessing a satellite re-entering the earth's atmosphere is much rarer than seeing the Northern Lights.
'Bad for the environment'
Laerhoven said when satellites re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, they break apart and the smaller pieces either "completely vapourize" or would hard to notice by the untrained eye.
The larger pieces, however, could be a bit more harmful, according to Laerhoven.
"This is a problem with satellites in general," Laerhoven said. "When a satellite re-enters and essentially disintegrates into the atmosphere you put a lot of metals high in the atmosphere where you wouldn't normally get them. In particular, you put something called alumina up in the atmosphere."
Laerhoven said alumina is "really good" at destroying ozone. She said the more alumina in the upper atmosphere, the less ozone will be present. She said depending on the amount of alumina within the satellites coming back to Earth, it could be worse than the impact chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have on the ozone. (Chlorine in CFCs, in particular, can have a devastating effect on ozone.)
"In the Yukon, you know, you feel a little trapped into one choice with Northwestel," Laerhoven said." And not to bash Northwestel, they do a very reasonable job given the challenges they're given. It's nice to have another option. Satellite internet is great and for some people it's really their only option — but it does come with these potential consequences."
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