If you saw a strange, and perfectly aligned, string of lights in the night sky over Illinois Sunday night you weren't alone.
And if you missed it, you may see it again this week.
Social media erupted with images of the unique visual that showed what appeared to be a line of lights that some were calling UFOs.
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The sighting came just hours after a U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.
But when it comes to the unusual scene over Illinois, it turns out it actually wasn't all that unusual.
The lights were actually Starlink satellites, which were launched into orbit Sunday evening.
It's not the first time Starlink satellite sightings have made headlines.
A similar sighting was spotted in April 2022 and also in April 2020, when sky gazers also reported strings of lights in the sky.
According to a website that tracks the satellites, the scene could be visible in Illinois again this week, with sightings possible both Monday and Thursday, though seeing them will depend on a number of conditions, including the weather, and locations could shift.
Part of the reason behind many viewers' concern was a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January.
Since then, fighter jets last week also shot down objects over Canada and Alaska. Pentagon officials said they posed no security threats, but so little was known about them that Pentagon officials were ruling nothing out — not even UFOs.
“We have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase,” said Melissa Dalton, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense.
