{"id":13169,"date":"2022-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=13169"},"modified":"2022-06-08T10:31:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T08:31:59","slug":"stargazers-call-for-greater-regulation-of-satellite-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/06\/07\/stargazers-call-for-greater-regulation-of-satellite-launches\/","title":{"rendered":"Stargazers call for greater regulation of satellite launches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to clean up space,\u201d say astronomers, as ever more satellites are launched into low Earth orbit <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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CubeSats are frequently deployed to low Earth orbit, but some scientists are concerned they’ll disrupt ground-based astronomy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Here are three numbers for you: 2,000, 100,000 and 327,000. The first is the number of active satellites in orbit around Earth in 2018. The second is the number of satellites predicted to be there by 2030. And the third is the number of new satellites that the Rwanda Space Agency recently applied for permission to launch. <\/p>\n\n

Even though the vast majority of satellite launches these days are of CubeSats \u2013 microsatellites that are very small (usually consisting of standardised units that are 10 x 10 x 10cm) \u2013 that\u2019s a huge increase.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

And if you\u2019re a ground-based astronomer, it presents a real problem. <\/p>\n\n

Having that much hardware floating around so close to Earth makes it more difficult to see the stars. It also makes it highly likely that any excitedly reported \u2018new comets\u2019 will turn out to be human-made. <\/p>\n\n

Which is why a team of scientists from the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands, writing in the journal Nature <\/em>Astronomy, <\/em>has called for greater regulation of satellite launches. <\/p>\n\n