With the rapid expansion of commercial space, there is a growing number of satellites in orbit around our planet. Most of these are in low-Earth orbit, which is becoming increasingly crowded.
This has led some to be concerned about a catastrophic rise of space debris, as well as a growing frustration by astronomers due to the number ofCurrently, the biggest player is the SpaceX Starlink project, which currently has more than 1,700 satellites in low-Earth orbit. They have become notorious for creating bright streaks in astronomical images. But Starlink will soon be followed by other projects, such as OneWeb and Amazon's Project Kuiper.
They found that from November 2019 to September 2021 there were more than 5,300 streaks seen in ZFT images. Most of the streaks were seen in twilight images taken near dusk or dawn.In 2019 only half a percent of twilight images had streaks, but they are now seen in about one of every 5 twilight images. This is concerning because twilight images are the most critically important to the search for near-Earth asteroids.
There are ways to mitigate the effect of these streaks. Painting the satellites and adding reflective panels could reduce their brightness, particularly at infrared wavelengths that are important for near-Earth asteroid detection.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
SpaceX launches 49 Starlink internet satellites, lands rocket at seaIt was the 10th launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 rocket first stage.
Read more »
SpaceX fires off 49 more Starlinks in rapid-fire launch sequenceIt was SpaceX's third orbital launch in just 12 days.
Read more »
You can watch SpaceX launch more than four dozen Starlink internet satellites tonight. Here's how.A SpaceX rocket will launch a new fleet of the company's Starlink internet satellites into orbit Tuesday night (Jan. 18) and you can watch it live online.
Read more »
SpaceX launches 49 Starlink internet satellites, lands rocket at seaIt was the 10th launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 rocket first stage.
Read more »
Nets have no timeline for Kevin Durant’s return from knee injuryBrooklyn coach Steve Nash confirmed it’s going to be weeks before the All-Star gets evaluated.
Read more »