The world is changing at a rapid rate and the sky above is no exception.
It is estimated that in a decade’s time the night sky will be teaming with satellite’s blocking out the stars and making it harder for astronomers to observe deep space. This is becoming more of an oppressing matter as the years go on due to our vision of colonising Mars.
It is estimated that there are over 8,000 satellite’s orbiting the earth which is an increase from 2019. Numbers are expected to rise immeasurably over the next few decades. Some 400,000 satellites have been approved globally for low earth orbit.
Due to the satellite’s having solar panels this reflects sunlight back down to earth making it hard for astronomers to see through these rays of light when aligned with telescopes. Many of the internet satellites interfere with the sensitive radio telescopes used by astronomers.
Tony Tyson, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California told the Sunday telegraph, “If you just went out in a dark place somewhere and looked at the sky in 2030 it would be a very macabre scene. The sky will be crawling with moving satellites and the number of stars that you would see are minimum, even in a very dark sky. It’s a major issue.”
However, there are solutions being tested to solve some of these problems. For instance, SpaceX are testing ways to control the orientation of satellites to make sure they don’t reflect sunlight back down on earth. SpaceX are also working on darkening their satellites making them less bright in the night sky.
So, if we are going to save these astonishing sights we need to act now.
To visualize the number of man-made Satellites and debris click on the link below.
https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo
By Austin
Carre’s Grammar School Newsroom
Really interesting article Austin! It is something I didn’t know about before reading.
Wow! This is really interesting, I had no idea the amount of space junk we are leaving and it’s impact. Hopefully SpaceX and others can continue to innovate so the future impact can be minimised.
Austin I had no idea there are so many satellites, I always thought I was looking at stars, I really hope in future the numbers of satellites are controlled.
Really interesting article ,well done.
Very informative Austin. I really hope SpaceX can come up with a solution to reduce the sunlight being reflected back onto planet Earth.
It’s something like pollution where nobody really thought about how it might be a problem until it became one! Must be tricky to clean up old space debris too, maybe some kind of giant space-net to get it down?
Brilliant article Austin. I had no idea of the situation. Well done on raising the profile of this issue by creating an interesting read.
Great article Austin. Personally, I think the solution needs to go deeper than changing the colour or orientation of the satellites. Hopefully we can somehow restrict the amount being sent up there in the future.