ESA is hoping to use the mission as a test for a much wider-reaching operation by a fleet of robot cleaners. One solution to the problem, proposed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in December 2019, is the 2025 launch of a four-armed robot to grab individual items of space junk. 10 interesting places in the solar system we'd like to visit The 10 most dangerous space weapons ever Space oddity: 10 bizarre things Earthlings launched into space SpaceX's Starlink currently has 1,200 satellites in orbit, but the company intends to increase its fleet to 42,000 in the coming decades - roughly 14 times the number of operational satellites in orbit today. At least 12 operators, including Amazon, SpaceX and OneWeb, have plans to launch new mega-constellation satellites or expand existing networks. "Astronomers build observatories far from city lights to seek dark skies, but this form of light pollution has a much larger geographical reach."Īnd the night sky could get even junkier and brighter, especially with the ongoing installation of “mega-constellations,” - large arrays of commercial satellites that aim to provide global internet access. "Unlike ground-based light pollution, this kind of artificial light in the night sky can be seen across a large part of the Earth's surface," study co-author John Barentine, director of public policy for the International Dark-Sky Association, said in the statement. Nevertheless, this could potentially obscure astronomical sights, such as the glowing clouds of stars along the disk of the Milky Way, wherever in the world star-gazers happen to be. Telescopes with high angular resolution and high sensitivity may also have part of their images ruined by the light pollution, although they can likely resolve the junk-reflected light into smears. The researchers found that this effect is most pronounced when viewing the cosmos with low-resolution detectors, such as the human eye, resulting in a diffuse brightness across all of the night sky. According to the researchers, satellites and space garbage ruin astronomical images by scattering reflected sunlight, producing bright streaks that are indistinguishable from - and often brighter than - objects of astrophysical interest, making it difficult if not impossible for them to get a clear picture.
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