The unexpected brightness of new satellites could ruin the night sky
The number of visible man-made objects may triple
'TWAS QUITE a show: a train of illuminated dots moving across the sky, many of them as bright as Polaris, the north star. These were not new astronomical objects, however. Rather, they were the first tranche of satellites for Starlink, a project intended to provide internet access across the globe. These were launched into orbit on May 24th by SpaceX, an American rocketry firm.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Blinded by the light”
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