Starlink satellites surround the Earth

The American company SpaceX has an idea: to surround the Earth 42 000 satellites to provide broadband Internet access in any point of the globe. A project called Starlink worried astronomers. The satellites are quite bright and can interfere with the observations. Ulrich K. Banert saw this picture when I was flying a plane over the border of Canada and the United States on January 20.

"From the window of the Airbus A380 I saw a string of satellites Starlink. I quickly took the camera and took this picture with eight satellites, and then dozens of others flew past us in the night sky," said Beinert.

Currently in earth orbit is only 180 satellites Starlink, but they come to the attention of observers. Now imagine if there will be 42 000. This can seriously complicate astronomical photography.

The launch Starlink will continue in 2020, and by year-end is expected to have about 1,000 satellites. For the most recent run January 6, SpaceX has experimentally coating on one of the devices is to reduce its brightness. However, preliminary observations show that the coating makes little difference.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»