Call for ban on satellites causing light pollution

A ban on mega-constellations of low-altitude satellites – arrays such as Elon Musk’s Starlink – should be considered, astronomers have said, to reduce light pollution and preserve our ability to study the skies.

In papers and opinion pieces in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists have raised the alarm about the night sky, with one team calling for scientists to stand up to “big light”.

“Despite the popularity of satellite mega-constellations, we must not reject the possibility of banning them,” the team write. “We believe the impacts and risks are too high for this possibility to be ruled out.”

“In my opinion there should be a limit on the total number of satellites in low orbits,” Fabio Falchi, from the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy, told the Guardian, with the team also arguing for caps on artificial light at night.

According to a second piece, mega-constellations have doubled the number of functional satellites in low Earth orbit since 2019, with a vast number of new launches planned.

But experts say the illumination of satellites and associated space junk by the sun could make it harder to detect near-Earth objects at a high risk of colliding with our planet.