SpaceNews (7 February 2025)

As the night sky grows crowded, astronomers face a growing problem

At the AAS meeting, the largest annual conference for astronomers, the organization announced it had adopted a new resolution opposing the development of what is known as “obtrusive space advertising,” or satellites in orbit displaying advertising images that can be seen from the ground. Just like satellite megaconstellations, astronomers worry such advertising could interfere with their observations.

That concern is, for now, largely a theoretical one. In the United States, federal law has banned obtrusive space advertising for decades, but John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of the AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), said the AAS is worried that other nations, like Russia, might allow it. “There is reason to believe that this activity will be pursued globally,” he said at a briefing during the AAS meeting. “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try.”

Read more: https://spacenews.com/as-the-night-sky-grows-crowded-astronomers-face-a-growing-problem/