Starlink Satellites in the Night Sky

In California’s Pinnacles National Park on the Life at Night Atlas project for the National Geographic, I was looking for big-eared bats which you can hear their clicking sound in the video. Then a “train” of satellites photobombed the clip. The recently launched set were on their way to the final orbit of about 550 km; a part of Starlink satellite constellation for internet/mobile services. SpaceX has already launched 4000 starlinks, with about 12,000 total satellites planned, and a possible extension to 42,000. The sky above us is becoming very busy. On one side is our need for internet globally. More than 3 billion people still don’t have internet access. About 50% of those with access, live in countries with heavy censorship and shutdowns during social unrest (tops by China, Iran, Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Russia). On the other side is the environmental impact of mega constellations, and Starlink will not be the only one. Frequent rocket launches increase black carbon chemicals in the atmosphere which adds to climate change. The night sky filled with sunlight-reflecting satellites largely impact astronomy research and our natural experience of the universe. In 2020 SpaceX contacted me to consult on the impact of their satellites on astrophotography and stargazing. They were in the process of adding shields to new satellites and change the orientations to reduce visible reflection from the solar panels. It’s great that a large unstoppable company cares about the impact but there is not much they can do to make these satellites invisible. Once deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket the new Starlinks unfurl solar panels to a span of about 100 feet (30 meters). During orbit-gain period of several weeks they are visible to naked eyes. Once in the final orbit they are usually too faint for the naked eyes but they are easily revealed in astrophotos, even with wide-angle lenses. In deep sky telescopic and observatory images, they appear as many bright streaks that ruin the work, unless carefully timed with thousands of satellites coordination. Time-taking processing methods can remove them too.