A satellite launched in September 2022 became one of the brightest objects in the night sky. As if that were not enough, the satellite, called BlueWalker3, it’s just a prototype. The company that manufactures it is the American AST SpaceMobile. And he wants to build a whole constellation of these devices. The artificial satellite shining in the sky could be the first of many.
Astronomer Sangeetha Nandakumar, from the University of Atacama (Chile), talked about this. He said it is urgent to mitigate the impact of these satellite swarms. The satellite tracking website Orbiting Now It says there are currently 8,693 artificial satellites. Most in low Earth orbit. The problem is that outer space belongs to everyone and no one at the same time. And without rules to regulate what happens up there, chaos is created.
Like Betelgeuse
Everyone wants a piece of the satellite constellation pie. Scientists estimate that about 100,000 constellation satellites will be in Earth orbit by 2030. Starlink tries to minimize the impact of its satellites, at least. They coat them with paint that reduces their shine and fix leaking radio signals.
The trend towards launching increasingly larger and brighter satellites continues to grow. In case of BlueWalker 3 highlights the urgent need for regulation. It started out quite bright, with a magnitude of 1, brighter than the system Polaris. On December 25, it dropped to magnitude 6, the lowest that the human eye can see without assistance. On April 4, 2023, however, the satellite had brightened again to magnitude 0.4. That is, the artificial satellite shining in the sky is almost as bright as Betelgeuse.
Impact
There is a huge problem for astronomical observations from the ground. They are not only a source of light pollution. During twilight hours it harms asteroid detections. And it interferes with the wavelength bands in which radio telescopes operate.
Nandakumar and his team suggest reducing the damage of their machines before launching them into space. «The impact of satellite operators must be evaluated before their launch. And it must be evaluated critically,” write the authors of the study.