2020-03-20 - Rancho Cordova, CA - Formation

Nine white lights (or more) following each other equidistant north to south at 5:45 am

I am a 62-year-old male. I live near Mather Field Airport and TRACON in Rancho Cordova, CA, and notice cargo jets flying and landing all the time. I am familiar with flight times and patterns and sounds. I began my daily morning walk from my house at 5:45 am. The sky was clear except for some high hazy clouds creeping up from the southwest. As I was looking up at the sky I noticed a string of lights, not blinking, coursing across the sky in a North to South direction. I realized that these were not airplanes. They seemed to be going the same speed; not slow but not very fast either, about the speed of an airliner. They did not change shape or color, but like dots of white in color following each other. They did not change directions at all. I could not tell the altitude, but it seemed they were all at the same altitude; the altitude of an airliner. I did not hear any noise like an engine. I began counting them. I noticed that as I got to number 9, they were b! eginning to follow farther apart.