Satellite imagery collected for Google Earth has revealed some strange things in the past—from phantom islands to mysterious shipwrecks—but zooming in on a rural area in northern Texas recently showed a satellite in orbit and exhibiting a colorful apparition.

Reddit users pointed out an image of a satellite flying over the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge near Gainesville, Texas, in the GoogleEarthFinds subreddit. We rarely get to see satellites in action, so this glimpse of the orbital flight is a rare treat. Due to the speed at which the satellite was traveling at the time, it appears four different times in the frame, creating a strange optical effect that resembles a sci-fi film.

The image was shared last week, but it was taken on November 29, 2024. The satellite has yet to be identified, but it may be a SpaceX Starlink satellite in low Earth orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who shared his insights on X.

McDowell also revealed the reason why the satellite appears as a multi-colored ghost flying over Earth’s surface. The image was captured by the Pleiades-1B satellite, a high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellite that covers the entire surface of the planet in 26 days from a Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite captures images in four spectral bands, red, blue, green, and near-infrared. The images are captured a split second apart, and are then combined together to generate one image that resembles how the human eye would view it in color.

Unfortunately for the satellite in question, it’s just too damn fast. Satellites in low Earth orbit travel at approximately 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) in order to counteract the planet’s gravity. In the final image shown on Google Earth, the satellite has moved between the three images, according to McDowell. Its speed is what’s behind its futuristic, space invasion appearance.