Sky at night is ‘being ruined by satellites’

British astronomers have warned that their view of the skies is under threat because of a rise in the number of satellites being launched.

they said the rockets delivering the craft are ruining their view of the stars as they appear as bright white streaks across the night sky. it comes as tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company spaceX is set to send up more frequent batches of satellites to establish high speed internet connections worldwide.

the overall number of satellites has already sparked alarm. there are 2,200 in orbit – with plans to launch up to 17,200 more. scientists said through telescopes, the craft look like ‘someone’s walking around firing a flashbulb every now and again’.

the satellites would be a particular issue for the large synoptic survey telescope (Lsst) in Chile. Dhara Patel, an astronomer at the royal Observatory Greenwich said: ‘What we want to do with Lsst and other telescopes is to make a real-time motion picture of how the sky is changing.’

he added: ‘Now we have these satellites that interrupt observations, and it’s like someone’s walking around firing a flashbulb every now and again.’

As part of its starlink constellation project, spaceX will from next week send batches of 60 satellites into orbit every few weeks. By the end of next year Mr Musk hopes to have 1,500 in orbit – and 12,000 within a few years.

UK company OneWeb is planning to launch 650 satellites, while Amazon wants to put 3,200 into space.

spaceX said it was trying to minimise the impact of its satellites, and was putting a special coating on the next set.