Elon Musk insists his satellite swarm won’t interfere with science. This model disagrees.
Starlink satellites interfere with observations at a telescope in Chile. Astronomers may need to adapt to a brighter, more dynamic sky. (NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/CTIO/AURA/DELVE/)Summer star gazers in rural areas are used to seeing a handful of satellites streak across the sky. But in the coming years, eagle-eyed amateurs may be able to pick out hundreds. And for professional astronomers, research will never be the same again.The race to blanket the globe in satellite internet is on. SpaceX leads with its fleet of Starlink satellites, which aims to provide high speed connectivity to anyone on the planet. The company has already placed more than 350 of the 570-pound, 30-foot wide machines into orbit, 60 of which launched on Wednesday. The company plans to eventually construct a “megaconstellation” of tens of thousands of satellites, with additional swarms to follow from Amazon and the UK company OneWeb. Ever since the...