Science (14 November 2022)

​Giant satellite outshines stars, sparking fresh concerns for astronomers

Thousands of commercial satellites already litter low-Earth orbit. The 64-square-meter BlueWalker 3 is the largest one yet, considerably brighter than any of the Starlink satellites deployed by SpaceX, says astronomer John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting. On top of the light pollution, BlueWalker 3 is testing a transmission technology that threatens to trespass into the frequencies used by radio observatories on Earth, he says. “This just fundamentally feels different,” he says. “We’re in new territory here.”

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-satellite-outshines-stars-sparking-fresh-concerns-astronomers​