Night sky can become 4 times brighter with satellites

Study assesses that satellite megaconstellations can affect astronomical observations by brightening the night sky, causing light pollution when more than 100,000 devices are used.

Since 2019, the number of satellites orbiting the Earth exceeds 14,000 devices, the majority of which are SpaceX's Starlink telecommunications satellites. Currently, with the plans of other companies, it is estimated that more than 1.7 million satellites could orbit planet Earth.

Aiming to avoid negative consequences for astronomy, the study calculates that the number of satellites in orbit should not exceed 100,000 devices, in addition to the fact that these should be dimly bright and should not be visible to the naked eye when observed from a dark place.

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Even when they do not point directly at the observer, the light from the satellites would appear in the sky like miracles of Venus, when it is possible to observe it with the naked eye.

ESO (European Southern Observatory) astronomer and study author, Oliver Hainaut, explains that "satellites, illuminated by the Sun, are much brighter than distant galaxies. When a satellite crosses what we observe, it leaves a bright trail in our image, obscuring everything behind it."

Artificial brightness
The study published by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics simulated the positions, movements and brightness of all existing and planned satellite constellations. The simulations found that, despite being weak enough not to be seen with the naked eye, if the satellites were a little brighter, they could affect the view of the sky even from observatory cameras used especially for this purpose.

The research is the first to consider the impacts that devices have on astronomy, revealing the full extent of light pollution and points out that, if another 50,000 satellites are actually installed, as the company Reflect Orbital plans, the sky would be four times brighter than it currently is.

*Under the supervision of Thiago Félix

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Source: CNN