This photo depicts the satellite-filled sky that is now a reality and getting more crowded every week. The image consists of exposures taken over a 30-minute stretch in June 2024 from a latitude of 51 degrees north, when satellites even in low Earth orbit are lit all night by sunlight. Many of the parallel streaks heading generally horizontal west to east (right to left) may be from groups of SpaceX Starlinks. Others traveling vertically north-south are more likely from Earth-observation satellites. There is at least one natural streak in the image — a meteor at center, caught by chance in one frame.
Astronomers are up in arms, protesting against a proposed constellation of tens of thousands of orbiting mirrors intended to reflect light onto ground-based solar power plants and SpaceX's envisioned one million orbiting data centers.
The projects, which have been put forward to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval, would destroy the night sky as we know it and obscure the views of astronomical telescopes all over the world, hampering scientific progress, according to experts.
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