WIRED (13 June 2023)

Satellites Keep Photobombing Space Images. Astronomers Need a Fix

The Rubin collaboration has expressed concern about the possibility of false alerts thanks to light reflecting off of satellites or space junk in orbit and has warned that as many as 30 percent of its images could be affected by satellite streaks. For example, a glint of sunlight off a small piece of insulation shed by a satellite could appear in a telescope image like a flaring star. Unless an astronomer can also measure the light's spectrum, they might be fooled, says John Barentine, a Tucson, Arizona, astronomer who recently authored a study about light pollution from low Earth orbit objects.​

Read more: ​https://www.wired.com/story/satellites-keep-photobombing-space-images-astronomers-need-a-fix/