Netizens couldn't believe their eyes when they spotted some seven mysterious lights gliding across the sky in Junagadh city of India's Gujarat state, triggering speculation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) on Monday night.
Quashing the rumours of UFOs being behind the unnatural lights, Narottam Sahoo, an adviser at the Gujarat Council of Science and Technology (GUJCOST), told local media on Tuesday that the incident may have occurred because of some satellites passing through low-Earth orbit.
"In the Saurashtra region, people sighted 30-40 mysterious lights blinking in a straight line. This caused curiosity and fear in people of the region due to blind beliefs. However, according to space science, such light sightings could be for three reasons. It could be either because a small portion of a meteoroid had entered the surface of the earth. It could also be a shooting star", Sahoo told the Indian news agency ANI.
"But, this particular sighting looked like multiple lights in a row. This could be because of some satellite passing through the low earth orbit. There are more than 3000 satellites functional in the lower orbit of the earth", he added.
Sahoo recalled that similar incidents were reported in multiple places in the United States when Elon Musk's SpaceX launched the Falcon rocket.
"This is definitely sighting of some satellite. There is nothing to worry about", he stated.