🚨 Beyond the limit 🚨
-
@esoastronomy
The FCC should only authorise spectrum over USA, not orbits and not RF elsewhere (AST). Not fit for purpose.
"The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital"
Those should be rejected by any sane civilisation.SF is not blueprints, but entertainment and/or warnings.
@raymaccarthy @esoastronomy It's amazing that countries haven't started labeling Musk orgs as threats to the national interest. It's time to start treating these greedy fuckers as adversaries.
-
Beyond the limit New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
Will the datacenters have any advantage in terms of cooling in space? I thought this was a non-starter. Maybe the electricity from the sun is somehow making it worthwhile?
I really don't understand why that would be functional. Maybe if there are 1 million of them the math works out? Seems like a high number.
-
@gunstick @esoastronomy They just do not care about humanity. I do not even dare to imagine the result of mirrors. Do we not have enough drought these days? What will happen to Africa and India? They are already suffering worse than the Europeans due to this rapid climate change 🤬
@connynasch @gunstick @esoastronomy Mirrors in space can go suck my … Evil.
-
@Npars01 @esoastronomy There are many nasty high profile people in the news who display this exact expression (as in image) when they are exerting their nastiness onto others. And of course, instead of being a warning ‘tell’, we allow it. Maybe this is what the sheep deserve because a good number of us admire this kind of $$$gluttony. We want to be there with him.
As has been reported, much of Elon Musk's apparent public favorability is fake.
It's used to gain venture capital for him & manipulate stock markets.
https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-misled-twitter-shareholders-us-jury-finds/a-76462448
Bots fishing for Greater Fools
https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/cryptocurrency/elon-musk-promises-algorithm-transparency-as-crypto-bots-flood-x/cmUeZItR43Xhttps://www.businessinsider.com/grok-ai-elon-musk-is-more-fit-than-lebron-james-2025-11
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/14/elon-musk-grok-ai-chatbot-x-linda-yaccarino
https://forward.com/culture/754111/grok-nazi-hitler-elon-musk-antisemitism-delusion/
Paid-for Russian influencers
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/29/the-uneasy-story-about-an-alleged-russian-spy-best-podcasts-of-the-weekIt's public sentiment manipulation by corporate interests
-
Both SpaceX & Reflect Orbital have filed with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch.
Our response to the FCC, together with the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union, was based on this study
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2607/
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser@esoastronomy as a stargazer myself, I am obviously standing with you against light pollution that would prohibit certain astronomy research. But the thing is, something much worse is going on, and it is mentioned in only a footnote in your article: the potential devastating effects on our ozone layer by the continuous reentries of old tech satellites which are mostly aluminum. This is the real problem on why these megaconstellations should be halted.
-
@esoastronomy as a stargazer myself, I am obviously standing with you against light pollution that would prohibit certain astronomy research. But the thing is, something much worse is going on, and it is mentioned in only a footnote in your article: the potential devastating effects on our ozone layer by the continuous reentries of old tech satellites which are mostly aluminum. This is the real problem on why these megaconstellations should be halted.
@esoastronomy your cause is very valid but some meteorological research groups should be mobilized to address a higher level cause than the light pollution cause.
-
Reflect Orbital aims to launch 50,000 mirror-like satellites to provide sunlight at night, with reflected beams spanning at least 5 km on Earth's surface.
This image illustrates how scattered sunlight would increase the overall brightness of the sky above the VLT, even if the mirrors aren’t aiming directly at the observatory.
3/4
ESO/O. Hainaut@esoastronomy Didn't the Soviets (later Russians) tried this and turned out to be a 'crazy idea' !
-
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
bars in our windows, caging us in
-
As has been reported, much of Elon Musk's apparent public favorability is fake.
It's used to gain venture capital for him & manipulate stock markets.
https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-misled-twitter-shareholders-us-jury-finds/a-76462448
Bots fishing for Greater Fools
https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/cryptocurrency/elon-musk-promises-algorithm-transparency-as-crypto-bots-flood-x/cmUeZItR43Xhttps://www.businessinsider.com/grok-ai-elon-musk-is-more-fit-than-lebron-james-2025-11
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/14/elon-musk-grok-ai-chatbot-x-linda-yaccarino
https://forward.com/culture/754111/grok-nazi-hitler-elon-musk-antisemitism-delusion/
Paid-for Russian influencers
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/29/the-uneasy-story-about-an-alleged-russian-spy-best-podcasts-of-the-weekIt's public sentiment manipulation by corporate interests
@Npars01 @esoastronomy The Bs are fully committed in seeing #TheCapitalistEndGame though to the bitter ending. It’s the only game they know, the game they bet their lives on, who gathered the largest mountain of gold.
“I WON!!” -
@esoastronomy your cause is very valid but some meteorological research groups should be mobilized to address a higher level cause than the light pollution cause.
@spacerik Indeed, the effects of satellite constellations go beyond their impact on astronomy. The press release is an explainer of our new study, but in parallel we have also escalated up this issue to the policymaking level at an international scale. You can find more details about this in this accompanying video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNwAKSL17s and this article: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/betty-kioko/
-
@esoastronomy In the alt text, it says the simulated image shows the night sky at 3-4x brighter. Is that a worldwide estimate with 50,000 mirrors, or is it localized to the VLT area? The effects to astronomy will be tremendous, but how will this also affect wildlife across the planet?
Cc: @sundogplanets
@ramsey @sundogplanets The simulation was specifically done over the VLT, but a similar increase would be visible at other locations. Even if the mirrors aren't pointing directly at the observer, when seen sideways they would still be as luminous as a bright planet like Venus. With a swarm of these bright sources above you at any given time, the atmosphere would scatter their light around, leading to the overall increase in brightness you see here.
-
@esoastronomy
Whoa. I was thinking it was a computer-generated image. But it's real!!!@zero Yes, this is a very real image of the current situation with "just" 14 000 satellites. Imagine 100x more...
-
@raymaccarthy @esoastronomy It's amazing that countries haven't started labeling Musk orgs as threats to the national interest. It's time to start treating these greedy fuckers as adversaries.
@Jumpmed @esoastronomy
Also his friend that made him rich. Peter Thiel and totally evil Palintir. -
if you want to stop or diminish this, instead of complaining, you need a plan to deliver the benefits without the harm
IMO
@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to @esoastronomy@mastodon.social Reflect Orbital is worse than useless. It transmits a few percentage points of sunlight to a spot on the ground. This is intended as a means to make solar farms operate at night, but a satellite providing 5% of sunlight to a few square kilometers of solar power is going to be a lot more expensive than 5% more solar panels and increasingly cheap batteries (like iron flow batteries).
The orbiting datacenter plans are a way to get super expensive computers nominally beyond Earth jurisdiction, but maintaining an orbital datacenter is basically impossible and they can barely shed heat.
The satellite internet swarms are an alternative to previous generation internet satellites. Lots of close satellites to take the place of fewer, further ones. -
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
@esoastronomy
"Firefly" intro: "Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me."Oligarchs: "Hold my beer!"
-
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
@esoastronomy That is literally selling stolen moonlight. That light those mirrors would collect belongs to all of humanity, not to some rocket bros with sonnengewher vibes.
-
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
@esoastronomy FCC should only be allowed to authorise geosynchronous orbit above USA. They have no right to pollute space above me or anyone else who doesn't live in the USA.
-
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
@esoastronomy This is disturbing to say the least. If there's truly no way to stop them from doing this, though, what if we just taxed the hell out of them and used that money to build a scientific outpost on the far side of the moon. That way they get their sky-destroying capitalist's wet dream, and we get a nifty new place to do science and, most of all, the sky would be clearer than on Earth.
-
Beyond the limit
New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy.
The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital
1/4
F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution
@esoastronomy When they lose their orbit, they'll probably kill us all.
-
Reflect Orbital aims to launch 50,000 mirror-like satellites to provide sunlight at night, with reflected beams spanning at least 5 km on Earth's surface.
This image illustrates how scattered sunlight would increase the overall brightness of the sky above the VLT, even if the mirrors aren’t aiming directly at the observatory.
3/4
ESO/O. Hainaut@esoastronomy someone has to tell him that it will stay dark under his bed.
