{"copyright":"\nWang Chao\n","date":"2025-12-30","explanation":"Yes, but can you r comet tail do this? No, and what you are seeing is not the tail of a comet. Th e picture features a cleverly overlayed time-lapse sequence of a group of satell ites orbiting Earth together in June. Specifically, these are Starlink communica tions satellites in low Earth orbit reflecting back sunlight before sunrise to I nner Mongolia, China. Although the satellites appear to the human eye as points, the 20-second-long camera exposures caused them to appear as short streaks. Cur rently there are over 9000 Starlinks in orbit, with more being launched nearly e very week. Other satellite constellations are also being planned. Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator","hdurl":"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/image\ /2512\/ArtificialComet_Chao_3000.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1 ","title":"An Artificial Comet","url":"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/image\/251 2\/ArtificialComet_Chao_1080.jpg"}
