WEBVTT

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- Our views of the
universe are under threat!

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Thousands of bright satellites
are getting flown up

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to Earth orbit to form
artificial constellations,

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making it harder for astronomers

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to gaze up at the night skies.

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But a team of researchers
from the university

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of Arizona want to help

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by designing a satellite tracking device

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to warn astronomers

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when there's an incoming bright satellite

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that could interfere
with their telescopes.

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The sensor looked at 61 SpaceX satellites.

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SpaceX alone wants to send
42,000 satellites to Earth orbit.

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That's a shit load of satellites

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and astronomers are already
feeling the effects.

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Satellites come with solar panels,

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which reflect sunlight back to Earth,

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and create bright streaks
across images of the cosmos.

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Without these images,

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we would lose valuable information
about surrounding stars,

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planets and other celestial objects.

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Ideally, private companies
like SpaceX can figure out ways

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to dim the brightness of their satellites.

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Because even warning astronauts

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to turn off their
telescopes is a lot of work.

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Think of it as shutting down
an old school desktop computer,

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except it's a gigantic computer

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that costs billions of dollars,

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and requires a lot of power
to start back up again.

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Also, that computer is helping us learn

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about our own origin story
in the universe, so you know,

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kind of a big deal.

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To read more about this
story, check out Gizmodo.com