04-27-2017, 05:32 PM
Mermaid, this may help.
An Iridium flare is caused by sunlight reflecting off the extremely reflective panels on Iridium satellites. This creates a narrow beam (a few miles wide) that travels along the Earth's surface, and if you happen to be in that narrow beam, you'll see the flare. The closer you are to the center of the beam, the brighter the flare.
Because the satellite is moving at approximately 17,000 mph, the beam of light also travels along the ground at the same speed, but as I said, it is quite a few miles wide. So, as the beam moves over you, you'll see the flare start to brighten and reach its brightest point when you are closest to the center, then will fade. Due to its speed, it happens over just a few seconds. If you had been in the middle of Hawaiian Acres, for instance, the flare would have lasted for roughly the same time (a second or two longer, perhaps), but it would have been much brighter, probably 200 times as bright as Jupiter, because you would have been at the very center of the beam.
Hope that helps a little!
An Iridium flare is caused by sunlight reflecting off the extremely reflective panels on Iridium satellites. This creates a narrow beam (a few miles wide) that travels along the Earth's surface, and if you happen to be in that narrow beam, you'll see the flare. The closer you are to the center of the beam, the brighter the flare.
Because the satellite is moving at approximately 17,000 mph, the beam of light also travels along the ground at the same speed, but as I said, it is quite a few miles wide. So, as the beam moves over you, you'll see the flare start to brighten and reach its brightest point when you are closest to the center, then will fade. Due to its speed, it happens over just a few seconds. If you had been in the middle of Hawaiian Acres, for instance, the flare would have lasted for roughly the same time (a second or two longer, perhaps), but it would have been much brighter, probably 200 times as bright as Jupiter, because you would have been at the very center of the beam.
Hope that helps a little!