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Waste_Bin t1_jagxzs6 wrote

It's certainly not an existential threat for astronomy, but in 50+ years might pose an actual concern for ground based based telescopes and an annoyance for amateur astronomers.

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Goregue t1_jai60cp wrote

It's more like 10 years if the current trend continues. Satellites constellations are growing at an exponential rate. It is an existential threat to astronomy because almost all astronomy observations are made from the ground and they will all be affected by the satellites trails. We will have less effective telescope time available, we will need more exposure times to compensate from the satellites trails (when it is possible to compensate them), which will lead to less astronomical research being done, less career astronomers, basically the stagnation of astronomy.

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Sealingni t1_jaigtcs wrote

Let's meet in 10 years and see how many of your pessimistic predictions came true. I think you underestimate how astute some scientists can be.

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Jarhyn t1_jaiixck wrote

Not to mention the advance of machine learning and AI correction and image composition.

I think we'll discover much like we did with broadcasting that technology will allow us to do much more starting with much less.

We may have less sky time, sure, but we'll have better ability to make sense of what we do see

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Spider_pig448 t1_jaik9uc wrote

A lot more than 10 years. Well need probably a million satellites at least in LEO for amateur astronomy to actually be affected

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