International Space Station passes over Gold Coast tonight

At first you may think you’ve just sighted a UFO, but the bright light zooming across the sky belongs to NASA.

AT first glance you may think you’ve just sighted a UFO.

But the bright light set to zoom across the sky on the Gold Coast tonight is the International Space Station.

The NASA ISS will be passing over the Coast for five minutes at 6.22pm at about 28,000 km/h.

Southern Astronomical Society president Brendan Junge said although travelling extremely quickly, it will still be easy to find.

“If you look up at the right time, you’ll see it clear as day if the clouds aren’t around,” he said.

The International Space Station over Earth Image Credit: STS-132 Crew, Expedition 23 Crew, NASA Explanation: The International Space Station is the largest object ever constructed by humans in space.

“It moves very quickly, it is easy to spot.

“The magnitude is -6, meaning it’s really bright.

“Venus is at -5. The higher the negative number, the brighter it is.”

The ISS is expected be visible from Brisbane to Tweed as it passes over north west at 11 degrees.

It will then disappear after five minutes when it turns south easterly at 24 degrees.

It passes over regularly, but usually it’s not visible from Earth.

The ISS is expected to be visible from 6.22pm.

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“It orbits around the Earth along different tracks all the time,” Mr Junge said.

“It’s like running a length of twine around a ball, over time it keeps covering the Earth.

“(I) look up and think ‘wow there’s people in that’. I think that’s a really cool thing to think about.”

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