SpaceX plans to launch 1 million satellites for space-based data centres.
This diagram shows the satellites that would be visible above our VLT:
⚪ invisible satellites in Earth’s shadow
🟠 2000 satellites brighter than magnitude 7
🔴 200 satellites brighter than magnitude 5
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📷 ESO/O. Hainaut
Reflect Orbital aims to launch 50,000 mirror-like satellites to provide sunlight at night, with reflected beams spanning at least 5 km on Earth's surface.
This image illustrates how scattered sunlight would increase the overall brightness of the sky above the VLT, even if the mirrors aren’t aiming directly at the observatory.
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📷 ESO/O. Hainaut
Both SpaceX & Reflect Orbital have filed with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch.
Our response to the FCC, together with the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union, was based on this study 👉 https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2607/
📹 F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser
@esoastronomy
Hilfe, die Milchstraße fällt auf die Erde 😳
@esoastronomy I suggest you charter a ship and sail it in the exclusion zone when such rocket launches are planned.
You could also try to shoot down the rocket with those datacenter and mirror satellites.
I think it is legitimate defense.
At least starlink has some use to be in space. But datacenters? Or mirrors? WTH???
@gunstick @esoastronomy They just do not care about humanity. I do not even dare to imagine the result of mirrors. Do we not have enough drought these days? What will happen to Africa and India? They are already suffering worse than the Europeans due to this rapid climate change 🤬
@connynasch @gunstick @esoastronomy Mirrors in space can go suck my … Evil.
Jul 1, 2026, 10:09 PM@connynasch @gunstick @esoastronomy I think Elon Musk is a threat to Humanity. I hope he gets stopped before all these madness gets real.
Jul 1, 2026, 1:17 PM@esoastronomy We're selling the space cheap.
@esoastronomy as a stargazer myself, I am obviously standing with you against light pollution that would prohibit certain astronomy research. But the thing is, something much worse is going on, and it is mentioned in only a footnote in your article: the potential devastating effects on our ozone layer by the continuous reentries of old tech satellites which are mostly aluminum. This is the real problem on why these megaconstellations should be halted.
@esoastronomy your cause is very valid but some meteorological research groups should be mobilized to address a higher level cause than the light pollution cause.
@spacerik Indeed, the effects of satellite constellations go beyond their impact on astronomy. The press release is an explainer of our new study, but in parallel we have also escalated up this issue to the policymaking level at an international scale. You can find more details about this in this accompanying video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNwAKSL17s and this article: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/betty-kioko/
@esoastronomy
Why does the FCC have authority over the space above Europe?
They already allowed a US satellite company hogging european HAM radio frequencies even when in radio range of europe.
my eyes can't handle that moving and flashing in the night sky!
@esoastronomy this cannot be allowed to happen.
@esoastronomy Humans to be evaporated ....
@esoastronomy In the alt text, it says the simulated image shows the night sky at 3-4x brighter. Is that a worldwide estimate with 50,000 mirrors, or is it localized to the VLT area? The effects to astronomy will be tremendous, but how will this also affect wildlife across the planet?
Cc: @sundogplanets
@ramsey @sundogplanets The simulation was specifically done over the VLT, but a similar increase would be visible at other locations. Even if the mirrors aren't pointing directly at the observer, when seen sideways they would still be as luminous as a bright planet like Venus. With a swarm of these bright sources above you at any given time, the atmosphere would scatter their light around, leading to the overall increase in brightness you see here.
@esoastronomy why on Earth would we want sunlight at night?
@bustikiller @esoastronomy Just another Capitalist scheme to monetize something, anything, everything…
#TheCapitalistEndGame
@esoastronomy Didn't the Soviets (later Russians) tried this and turned out to be a 'crazy idea' ! :thaenkin:
@esoastronomy someone has to tell him that it will stay dark under his bed.
@esoastronomy Why would anyone want sunlight at night?
@esoastronomy
Are they still thinking about this dumb idea of space based data centers ?
Stupidest idea ever. He hasn't completed his "self-driving car", or robots, and he's making up new scams.
Also, dissipating heat in space is a huge problem. This is just another total scam out of these con artists. And I use the term "artist" loosely here.
I'm sorry, what's the challenge.There's no challenge in my post
if you want to stop or diminish this, instead of complaining, you need a plan to deliver the benefits without the harm
IMO
@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to @esoastronomy@mastodon.social Reflect Orbital is worse than useless. It transmits a few percentage points of sunlight to a spot on the ground. This is intended as a means to make solar farms operate at night, but a satellite providing 5% of sunlight to a few square kilometers of solar power is going to be a lot more expensive than 5% more solar panels and increasingly cheap batteries (like iron flow batteries).
The orbiting datacenter plans are a way to get super expensive computers nominally beyond Earth jurisdiction, but maintaining an orbital datacenter is basically impossible and they can barely shed heat.
The satellite internet swarms are an alternative to previous generation internet satellites. Lots of close satellites to take the place of fewer, further ones.