Air pollution from satellites burning up in Earth's atmosphere could become the world's next big environmental problem — but the tricky form of contamination seems to evade the reach of both international space treaties and Earth-focused environmental laws. So, some researchers are suggesting a solution: Maybe chemicals produced during satellite reentries should be incorporated in the 1987 Montreal Protocol which bans certain substances that can harm our planet's protective ozone layer.
Satellites have been burning in Earth's atmosphere since the beginning of the space age, but for decades, nobody really paid much attention to the issue. That changed when the era of megaconstellations arrived.
