SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which have filled low-Earth orbit, interfere with the study of dangerous objects such as asteroids and comets, scientists said. The study was published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
As part of the study, scientists studied about 300,000 images taken by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in California. It turned out that from November 2019 to September 2021, there was a 35-fold increase in the number of corrupted images. As experts explain, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s global Internet satellites reflect sunlight, which leaves stripes on photographs.
The researchers noticed that satellites had the biggest impact on filming at dusk, with the proportion of striped images taken at this time increasing from less than 0.5 percent to 18 percent.
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At the same time, scientists noted that the company tried to solve this problem. In particular, the installation of special sun visors made it possible to reduce the brightness of reflected light by 4.6 times.
In August 2021, British scientists said that Starlink devices are dangerous to other satellites in Earth orbit. According to experts, about 1,600 dangerous encounters with other objects occur weekly due to Starlink satellites alone.
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