‘All hail the overlords!’: Stargazers mystified by unexplained lights in the night sky (PHOTOS)

Speculation was rife online Sunday evening, after mystified residents in Michigan reported seeing unidentified lights flying in formation across the night sky.

Theories ranged from a string of lanterns to “weird stars” and finally, naturally, to alien overlords.

"What are the weird stars in a row in the sky?" resident Sindi Kozminske asked a local news outlet on Facebook, after a sighting at approximately 7:30pm local time.

“Right... couldn't be a coverup or practice run for the actual arrival of our Alien Overlords (ALL HAIL THE OVERLORDS!!!) I'm, um, an early adapter,” joked Dutch Wolff on Facebook.

"They were moving pretty slow and were a consistent distance apart," Kalamazoo resident Amber Huston said in a Facebook comment. "We could see about 6 to 10 at a time and then they would disappear into the atmosphere."

“I was with my girlfriend in Vicksburg at 7:30 pm Sunday when we saw them and freaked us out! Thought we were getting invaded for a minute,” another Michigan native wrote.

However, as always, the real explanation was a bit more mundane than an alien invasion; it turns out the lights were merely the machinations of one Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite constellation orbits the Earth in formation at an altitude of 174 miles up, much to the consternation and frustration of astronomers the world over.

As of November 2019, Musk has launched some 122 satellites into the skies above us, with the ultimate goal of deploying some 12,000 by the mid-2020s. 

Below is the footage from earlier this year of Starlink satellites streaking across the skies above the Netherlands. For those who wish to avoid minor panic attacks at the thought of an impending alien invasion, you can check when and where the Starlink satellites are expected to fly overhead here.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!