The new study found a significant increase in damaged astronomical images from the U.S. Starlink satellites or hindered ground-based observations

According to the US "Insider" website reported on the 6th, a new study found that due to the star-chain satellite of the US space exploration technology company SpaceX reflecting sunlight to form streaks on astronomical images, the number of damaged images increased significantly.

The number of corrupted images increased by a factor of 35

According to the study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers examined the effects of the Starlink satellite on about 300,000 astronomical images taken by ZTF at dusk at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California. They found that between November 2019 and September 2021, the number of images damaged increased 35-fold.

The researchers wrote: "We found that as SpaceX deployed more satellites, the number of images affected increased over time. We estimate that once the starlink reaches 10,000 satellites, basically all ZTF images taken at dusk could be affected. ”

SpaceX launched 150 Starlink satellites in the last month alone, with a cumulative launch of more than 1,900 satellites.

SpaceX used its Falcon 9 rocket to put the Starlink Internet satellite into orbit in an Associated Press image

or obstruct ground-based observations

According to the Wall Street Journal, a NASA spokesperson said that starlink satellites have the potential to interfere with ground-based observations by increasing the complexity of distinguishing artificial satellites from natural objects such as asteroids and comets.

Eric Belm, an astronomer at the University of Washington, said that while the streaks formed by the starlink satellites reflecting sunlight may not be enough to damage the scientific value of the image, they may complicate the work of detecting potentially dangerous asteroids.

SpaceX has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission to operate 12,000 Starlink satellites. And the documents show that SpaceX wants to increase that number to at least 42,000. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted jan. 15 that about 1,740 Starlink satellites are active or in orbit.

Upstream News Compiled by Jiang Mingjing