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NASA is sounding an unusually stark alarm: in the coming years, streaks from commercial satellites could creep into almost every image taken by major space telescopes. What was once a pristine, black canvas for astronomy is rapidly filling with artificial lights that threaten to turn precision observations into noisy, contaminated data.



The new NASA warning: almost every image at risk

When NASA scientists say that almost all space telescope images could soon be affected, they are describing a fundamental shift in how astronomy will work, not a minor nuisance. The agency’s latest analysis concludes that the sheer number of satellites planned for low Earth orbit will leave very few exposures untouched, especially for observatories that stare at large swaths of sky for long periods. That means the default expectation for future missions is no longer a clean frame, but one laced with bright trails that must be detected, modeled, and removed.