originalvichy2 hours ago
I fear this is only the start of it. A minimum of 3-4 constellations more will probably be launched in the near future (Russia, China, EU).
Their obvious dual-use nature makes them tempting, and a military target if a large conflict will take place in the near future. I hope their lower orbit will help any space junk burn up fast.
aaron695an hour ago
[dead]
ragebol2 hours ago
Yeah, I kinda get why astronomers are not particularly happy with satellite constellations.
adev_31 minutes ago
And this is just the visible spectrum.
The situation is one order of magnitude worst in radio-astronomy.
It is fair to state that satellite constellations will certainly be the main obstacle to multiple major scientific discoveries in the next decade.
ultratalk21 minutes ago
Opinion: We need to move our astronomical observation equipment off of Earth and onto other bodies, especially radio astronomy, which, unlike telescopes that operate in other wavelengths, is still affected by Earth's emissions in LEO/near-Earth space. We should put a radio telescope on the far side of the moon [0] to benefit from the thousands of kilometers of lunar material separating Earth's emissions from telescopes.
[0] https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438165
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Crater_Radio_Telescope
christophilus2 minutes ago
Agreed. It’s the only solution short of a ban on constellations.
gasian hour ago
So cool! Zoom in to find out: https://zoomhub.net/0w8pN
ciroduran2 hours ago
I'm rebuilding my RSS feed collection, and having pretty astronomy pictures is a fine addition. Thanks!
khazhouxan hour ago
Is this all / mostly Starlink?
vednig31 minutes ago
It's a set of network satellites for sure either by Eutelsat or Starlink in 70:20 ratio 10% being other providers
But all of them being LEO for sure.
w-ll2 hours ago
if i could imagine what a Sophon from 3 body problem would look like. this is kind of it.
renerick2 hours ago
That looks so cool, ngl!