{"id":333890,"date":"2025-12-08T00:07:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/more-than-500000-satellites-are-set-to-orbit-earth-by-2040-they-may-end-up-photobombing-the-images-captured-by-space-telescopes\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T00:07:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:07:47","slug":"more-than-500000-satellites-are-set-to-orbit-earth-by-2040-they-may-end-up-photobombing-the-images-captured-by-space-telescopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=333890","title":{"rendered":"More Than 500,000 Satellites Are Set to Orbit Earth by 2040. They May End Up Photobombing the Images Captured by Space Telescopes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Fleets of satellites interfere with snapshots taken by Earth-bound observatories. But a new study suggests these orbiters will also contaminate observations by four space telescopes, including Hubble<\/h2>\n
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Sara Hashemi<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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An image simulating the contamination from satellite trails in observations by\u00a0ARRAKIHS, a European Space Agency telescope planned to launch in 2030
\n NASA \/ Borlaff et al., Nature<\/em>, 2025 under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a><\/span>
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Space is filling up with satellites, and that\u2019s bad news for astronomy.<\/p>\n

Researchers already knew that artificial satellites interfered with ground-based observatories. Now, a new NASA-led study focusing on two operational and two planned space telescopes suggests that the problem doesn\u2019t end on Earth.<\/p>\n

The work, published on December 3 in the journal Nature<\/a>, <\/em>suggests that satellites will photobomb nearly all the snapshots by three of those space telescopes, interfering with the data they capture. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs telescopes stare at the universe attempting to unveil distant galaxies, planets and asteroids, satellites sometimes cross in front of their cameras, leaving bright traces of light that erase the dim signal that we receive from the cosmos,\u201d Alejandro Borlaff,<\/a>\u00a0a study co-author and astrophysicist at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center, tells Will Dunham at\u00a0Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 15,000 satellites currently orbit the Earth. By 2040, that number is expected to grow to about 560,000 satellites, based on planned launches by companies such as SpaceX\u2019s Starlink and Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give an idea of how much this number increased recently, we have launched more satellites to low-Earth orbit in the last four years\u20142021 to 2025\u2014than in the previous seven decades of space flight combined,\u201d Borlaff says to Reuters. Still, researchers previously thought that space telescopes high in the sky were mostly clear of light pollution made by humans, he adds.<\/p>\n

To figure out how half a million satellites may affect observatories beyond Earth, the researchers ran computer simulations involving four telescopes: the Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>;\u00a0SPHEREx<\/a>, which launched in March; China\u2019s Xuntian Space Telescope, expected to launch in 2026; and the European Space Agency\u2019s\u00a0ARRAKIHS<\/a>,\u00a0planned for 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 96 percent of images captured by SPHEREx, ARRAKIHS and Xuntian would contain at least one satellite trail, the team found. SPHEREx would have an average of about 6 streaks per image, ARRAKHIS would have about 70 per image and Xuntian would have about 92 per image. Hubble should fare better, thanks to its narrow field of view, according to the authors. It would have an average of 2 streaks per picture, and 40 percent of its images would contain satellite contamination.<\/p>\n

The possible outcome is \u201ctruly frightening,\u201d Patrick Seitzer<\/a>, an astronomer at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study, tells Nature<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Jenna Ahart. \u201cThis is a very important study for the future of space-based astronomy.”<\/p>\n

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Need to know: What is a satellite megaconstellation?<\/h4>\n

These megaconstellations<\/a> are groups of hundreds to thousands of human-made satellites that work together to provide broadband internet access.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rafael Guzm\u00e1n<\/a>, consortium lead for ARRAKIHS and an astrophysicist at the Institute of Physics of Cantabria in Spain, tells Science<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Daniel Clery\u00a0that he disagrees with part of the analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we do share the serious concern most astronomers have regarding the negative effects of megaconstellations,\u201d the authors incorrectly assumed that ARRAKIHS will search the entire sky, he says to the outlet. It will actually spend most of its time looking away from Earth, where satellites shouldn\u2019t interfere much with its view. While 96 percent of ARRAKIHS\u2019 images would be affected, an analysis by Guzm\u00e1n team found that less of each image would have satellite pollution than suggested in the study.<\/p>\n

So, what can be done about this satellite photobombing? Borlaff and his colleagues propose three ways people could reduce satellites\u2019 impact. The first is limiting the farthest orbits of satellite fleets so that space telescopes can operate beyond them. The second is maintaining an archive of both active and defunct spacecraft and their debris. Lastly, companies and researchers should generate more precise data on spacecrafts\u2019 orbital trajectories.<\/p>\n

While Borlaff tells\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0that he hopes astronomers and satellite companies can compromise so their spacecraft can coexist, other scientists are skeptical that mitigation efforts would prove fruitful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the study, researchers would need to know a satellite\u2019s orbit with centimeter-level precision for Hubble to avoid a streak. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s physically realistic,\u201d Meredith Rawls<\/a>, an astronomer at the University of Washington who was not involved in the work, tells\u00a0Science<\/em>. \u201cThe precision is just not going [to] be good enough to make that feasible the majority of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of space telescopes avoiding satellites is \u201cdeeply na\u00efve,\u201d Mark McCaughrean<\/a>, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany who was also not involved in the study, tells\u00a0Nature.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cToo few people seem to care about the consequence of over-exploiting this heavenly resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

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