Blurry streaks of light created by fast-moving artificial satellites are already known to mar images taken by ground-based observatories. Today, researchers report1 in Nature that space-based telescopes will not escape such interference as fleets of private satellites proliferate. The researchers found that in the next decade, satellite trails could taint roughly 96% of the images taken by some space-based telescopes, and a single image could contain as many as 92 streaks. The findings are 'truly frightening', says Patrick Seitzer, an astronomer at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was not involved in the work. 'This is a very important study for the future of space-based astronomy.' Around 15,000 satellites launched by various companies currently orbit Earth, and several firms plan to launch groups of thousands more, forming 'megaconstellations' that will be used for telecommunications (see 'Rocketing upwards'). For example, aerospace company SpaceX plans to grow its...
learn more
