卫星星座对空间天文学构成重大威胁

"...Well, don't you worry, because it turns out, it's worse than we thought...."

"...It couldn't be that bad, could it? It could...."

"...That's not the half of it (literally), since the report predicts that three other space telescopes would experience a 96% contamination rate, all but rendering these expensive and brilliant machines useless...."

"...That would be a disaster for astronomy...."

"...It's kind of hard to pierce the veil of the heavens when the image looks worse than an old 8mm film strip...."

"...Essentially, SpaceX reduced the cost of launching stuff into orbit with its Falcon 9 rocket, which has made all this possible...."

"...That race has left scientists in the dust...."

"...Obviously, this all puts ground-based observatories in an even worse position...."

"...That astonishing feat is in jeopardy: NASA's study states that even if the total satellite count stays under 50,000, that will still ruin up to 80% of Rubin's photos...."

"...And unlike its space-based brethren, Rubin can't move around...."

"...But as more and more beloved space images become contaminated, maybe public pressure will build to implement some of them...."

"...Vantablack paint on satellites? It would help! But even that's not enough on its own...."

"...The worst case scenario would be that only the distant James Webb Space Telescope, far beyond LEO, would be able to take useable pictures consistently...."