                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 June 1

                             Starlink over Orion
                       Image Credit: Amir H. Abolfath

   Explanation: What are those streaks across Orion? Most are reflections
   of sunlight from numerous Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites. Appearing
   by eye as a series of successive points floating across a twilight sky,
   the increasing number of SpaceX Starlink communication satellites are
   causing concern among many astronomers. On the positive side, Starlink
   and similar constellations make the post-sunset sky more dynamic,
   satellite-based global communications faster, and help provide digital
   services to currently underserved rural areas. On the negative side,
   though, these low Earth-orbit satellites make some deep astronomical
   imaging programs more difficult, in particular observing programs that
   need images taken just after sunset and just before dawn. Planned
   future satellite arrays that function in higher orbits may impact
   investigations of the deep universe planned for large ground-based
   telescopes at any time during the night. The featured picture, taken in
   2019 December, is a digital combination of over 65 3-minutes exposures,
   with some images taken to highlight the background Orion Nebula, while
   others to feature the passing satellites.

    SatCon2 Wokshop 12-16 July 2021: Mitigating Satellite Constellations
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

