Astronomers warned on Monday that light pollution from multiple Earth-orbiting satellites poses an “unprecedented global threat to nature.” The number of satellites in low-Earth orbit has more than doubled since 2019, when the American company SpaceX launched the first “mega-constellation” of thousands of satellites. A navy of new Internet constellations is scheduled to launch soon, adding thousands more satellites to an already congested area less than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from Earth.

Each new satellite increases the risk of colliding with another object in Earth’s orbit, creating even more debris. This could set off a chain reaction where successive collisions create increasingly smaller pieces of debris and add to the cloud of “space debris” that reflects light back to Earth.

In a series of articles published in the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers warn that increased light pollution threatens the future of their profession. In a paper, researchers say for the first time they have measured how much brighter night skies will affect the operation of a large observatory financially and scientifically. The simulations showed that for the Vera Rubin Observatory, a giant telescope currently under construction in Chile, the darkest part of the night sky will become 7.5 percent brighter over the next decade.

This will reduce the number of stars the observatory can see by about 7.5 percent, study co-author John Barentin told AFP. Barentin of Dark Sky Consulting, located in Arizona, USA, said that this would add about another year to the observatory research, which will cost about $21.8 million.

He added that brighter skies have another immeasurable cost: celestial events that humanity will never be able to observe. And the rise in light pollution may be worse than previously thought. another study Nature used extensive modeling to suggest that current measurements of light pollution significantly underestimate the phenomenon.

“Stop this attack”

The researchers warned that illuminating the night sky won’t just affect professional astronomers and large observatories. It also threatens “our longstanding relationship with the night sky,” said astronomer Aparna Venkatesan of the University of San Francisco.

“Space is our common heritage and ancestor that unites us through science, storytelling, art, origin stories and cultural traditions, and is now threatened,” he said in a Nature commentary.

A group of astronomers from Spain, Portugal and Italy urged scientists to “stop this attack” in the natural night.

“The loss of the natural orientation of a pristine night sky for the entire world, even at the peak of K2 or on the shores of Lake Titicaca or Easter Island, is an unprecedented global threat to nature and cultural heritage,” the astronomers said. A comment on nature.

“Unless it is stopped, this madness will only get worse.”

“We shouldn’t rule out the possibility of banning them,” said astronomers, calling for harsh restrictions on mega-constellations. Given the economic interests at stake, they said, it was “naive to expect the booming space economy to self-limit unless absolutely necessary”.