(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]
 

Bright satellites are disrupting astronomy research worldwide | my, how things have changed

2023-11-23 20:12:28+00:00

Back in the 1980s the passage overhead of satellites was relatively rare, and amateur observer books were published about the topic. It was a matter of public interest, so much so that the weather prediction in the Guardian newspaper would list a few predicted satellites per day.

How things have changed:

The summary: astronomers spent a lot of time asking SpaceX and other large satellite operators to pretty please make their satellites fainter and/or use fewer satellites. And then BlueWalker 3 was launched by some tiny company and is one of the brightest things in the sky. Asking nicely isn’t working: international regulation and pollution penalties are needed. https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/111460548766931530

Links onwards to https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03610-5, paywalled, but the toot promises to supply a version if possible.
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[1] URL: https://alecmuffett.com/article/108440
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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