What is the Black Knight satellite?
The Black Knight satellite is an unidentified black object said to orbit the Earth in an orbit passing over the North and South Poles. It is told as an urban legend that “it is a satellite left by aliens about 13,000 years ago, long before humans launched their first satellite, and it watches the Earth or sends signals.”
Events presented as evidence
This urban legend links several events together as evidence: the inventor Nikola Tesla’s statement in 1899 that he had received regular radio signals from space; newspaper articles in the 1950s reporting that “an unidentified satellite has been found”; and a 1960 report that the military had found a mysterious dark object. The decisive “evidence” was a photo taken in 1998 by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, showing a strangely shaped black object floating against the backdrop of the Earth.
Really space junk
However, the object in the 1998 photo is thought to have been a thermal blanket that an astronaut lost during a spacewalk while assembling the International Space Station. The records also note the loss of a blanket during the work. The mysterious object of 1960 is also said to have been part of a satellite launched by the United States. Events that were originally separate were gradually combined into a single story on the internet.
Urban legends about space
Many pieces of space junk orbit the Earth, such as old satellites and rocket fragments. Photos of such objects often become topics as evidence of aliens. See also the Moon-related urban legends of the Moon Mona Lisa and pyramids on the Moon.
