Ever since SpaceX launched its first swarm of Starlink internet satellites in 2019, astronomers have been sounding an alarm. Sunlight reflecting off the satellites leaves bright streaks on images taken from ground-based telescopes, while the radio waves they emit or leak similarly bedevil radio observatories. Now, it seems that even telescopes orbiting hundreds of kilometers above Earth’s surface are not immune to these nuisances.
In a paper published today in Nature, NASA researchers analyzed how four existing and upcoming space telescopes would be impacted by the 500,000 satellites expected to be launched before 2040. The news is not good. One-third of images from the Hubble Space Telescope would contain satellite streaks, and the other telescopes would have at least one streak on more than 96% of images. Images from China’s Xuntian space telescope, due for launch in 2026, would have on average 92 streaks each.
When satellite “megaconstellations” first emerged as a way to achieve widespread internet access, what “came as a surprise was just the brightness of these things,” says astronomer Mike Peel of Imperial College London, who also works with the International Astronomical Union on its Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky (CPS). Now, with more than 9000 Starlink satellites in operation—two-thirds of all active satellites—and other companies in hot pursuit, including OneWeb, Amazon, and Chinese companies, a certain fatalism has set in.
To read more, click here