Reacción a "A study warns of the impact that satellite megaconstellations will have on images from space telescopes such as Hubble"

The study addresses the major problem of light pollution caused by satellite trails in space telescopes, both those already in operation (Hubble, SPHEREx) and those that will be in the near future (ARRAKIHS, Xuntian).

It is remarkable how wrong past public statements were, such as when Elon Musk proposed -when the Starlink constellation started to be launched- that astronomers place telescopes in space to avoid pollution.

The impact of satellite constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO) has been simulated, introducing an increasing number of satellites representing conditions in LEO, from ~2000 (approximate number of satellites in 2019) to the 560,000 announced by the telecommunications industry for the year 2037 (e.g., Starlink, OneWeb, Guowang, Astra, and others). The data and methodology are robust and well-tested, using public constellation profiles and Python modules such as Skyfield for the calculations.

There has been no such detailed study of the impacts on space telescopes. The current pollution is well known and evident in many images from space telescopes in operation.

The novelty of this work is that it provides a global vision of the future if the plans to launch the constellations are carried out, which puts space telescopes of maximum scientific interest in jeopardy. The results of the simulations are devastating and very alarming: 39% of the images from the Hubble Space Telescope will have at least one satellite trail, with an average of two satellites per image. In the case of SPHEREx, ARRAKIHS, and Xuntian, 96% of the images will show satellite trails, with an average of six, 70, and 90 satellites per image.

As for the brightness of the satellite trails, the spectral energy distribution has been realistically simulated using the reflected emission from the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth's albedo, in addition to the infrared emission from satellites.

The results show that a significant proportion of satellites are detectable by telescopes even without being directly illuminated by the Sun and are exceptionally bright in the infrared due to the thermal emission of their electronic components.

Given that the launch of satellite constellations is following a virtually exponential progression, the study indicates that we must stop this situation before it is too late. The science of the future is at stake.