The company may have found a new way to keep its satellites from ruining telescope images.
SpaceX is working to make its satellites less of a nuisance to astronomers by testing out ways to stop Starlink from showing up in images of the cosmos. The company recently lowered the altitude of a batch of its internet satellites to mitigate their brightness as viewed from Earth.
SpaceX is collaborating with the National Science Foundation to reduce the impact of its next-generation satellites on optical astronomy. The company recently lowered the altitude of its demo Starlinks to 217 miles above Earth’s surface, which reduces their ability to catch and reflect sunlight. The NSF agrees that this strategy could help. Lower orbits could “be beneficial to ground-based optical and infrared astronomy as satellites move faster through a telescope’s focal plane and are more out-of-focus, reducing overall brightness per pixel,” an NSF spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. “At lower altitudes, satellites are also blocked from sunlight by the Earth for longer portions of the night, not reflecting towards the ground.
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