I fear this is only the start of it. A minimum of 3-4 constellations more will probably be launched in the near future (Russia, China, EU).
Their obvious dual-use nature makes them tempting, and a military target if a large conflict will take place in the near future. I hope their lower orbit will help any space junk burn up fast.
Opinion: We need to move our astronomical observation equipment off of Earth and onto other bodies, especially radio astronomy, which, unlike telescopes that operate in other wavelengths, is still affected by Earth's emissions in LEO/near-Earth space. We should put a radio telescope on the far side of the moon [0] to benefit from the thousands of kilometers of lunar material separating Earth's emissions from telescopes.
Why are satellite trails npt continuous lines
Is the camera exposure taking a few seconds of break between takes that get stacked later with some "missing" moments in between?
I fear this is only the start of it. A minimum of 3-4 constellations more will probably be launched in the near future (Russia, China, EU).
Their obvious dual-use nature makes them tempting, and a military target if a large conflict will take place in the near future. I hope their lower orbit will help any space junk burn up fast.
Yeah, I kinda get why astronomers are not particularly happy with satellite constellations.
And this is just the visible spectrum.
The situation is one order of magnitude worst in radio-astronomy.
It is fair to state that satellite constellations will certainly be the main obstacle to multiple major scientific discoveries in the next decade.
Opinion: We need to move our astronomical observation equipment off of Earth and onto other bodies, especially radio astronomy, which, unlike telescopes that operate in other wavelengths, is still affected by Earth's emissions in LEO/near-Earth space. We should put a radio telescope on the far side of the moon [0] to benefit from the thousands of kilometers of lunar material separating Earth's emissions from telescopes.
[0] https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438165
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Crater_Radio_Telescope
Our telescopes actually need the (or at least an) atmosphere to function.
There are some classes of observatories, which you cannot build in space but which are still affected by satellites to some degree.
Agreed. It’s the only solution short of a ban on constellations.
So cool! Zoom in to find out: https://zoomhub.net/0w8pN
I'm rebuilding my RSS feed collection, and having pretty astronomy pictures is a fine addition. Thanks!
if i could imagine what a Sophon from 3 body problem would look like. this is kind of it.
Is this all / mostly Starlink?
It's a set of network satellites for sure either by Eutelsat or Starlink in 70:20 ratio 10% being other providers
But all of them being LEO for sure.
That looks so cool, ngl!