Summary

Artificial satellites around the Earth are a new form of light pollution. Those on low-earth orbits can be especially bright. Companies plan to launch tens of thousands of such satellites, and our view of the night sky, constellations and the Milky Way may be entirely lost. Please sign the following petition, and share it with your friends (and ask them to sign and share).

SpaceX satellites marching through the sky from Brazil, late 2019. Note that the satellites are brighter than the brightest stars. Photo by Egon Filter.

Petition

Links and news below:

Images of all sort


SpaceX satellites crossing the sky as seen by the Global Meteor Network from Farra Observatory, Italy. Stars trail in the back from the lower left to the upper right.

SpaceX satellites crossing the sky as seen by the Global Meteor Network from La Palma, Canary Islands. Stars trail in the back on arcs. La Palma enjoys strong protection against light pollution, but the law is not prepared for light pollution from space.

SpaceX satellites crossing the image of an astronomical camera at Lowell Observatory.

SpaceX satellites crossing the image of an astronomical camera from Hungary (credit Robert Fidrich).

SpaceX satellites on a suburban sky. Images by mars_stu@twitter.

SpaceX satellites on a suburban sky. Images by mars_stu@twitter.

SpaceX satellites on Dec 26, 2019. Photo by Mónika Landy-Gyebnár.

Please send you comments, photos, links to gbakos at astro.princeton.edu.