 recommends. The IAU, which led the study, was founded in 1919 to safeguard the science of astronomy. The paper 'shows us that there are no boundaries to satellite brightness', Patrick Seitzer, an emeritus astronomer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who was not involved in the study, told Nature. 'I'm concerned that we're going to see a very large number of large satellites launched in the next decade, and it will change the appearance of the night sky forever.' IAU researchers assessed the satellite's shine in the night sky, using the magnitude scale, on which the brightest objects have the smallest numbers. BlueWalker 3 has a magnitude of just +0.4, meaning if it were a star, it would be one of the){kind=link}
A PROTOTYPE satellite has officially become one of the brightest objects in the night sky, leaving stargazers and astronomers horrified.
The huge new satellite, BlueWalker 3, outshines nearly all stars visible in a dark sky, according to a recent study published in Nature.
BlueWalker 3 is AST SpaceMobile’s prototype, designed to bring satellite connectivity to around half of Earth’s population.
The satellite, 693 square feet in size, is a predecessor to an even larger range of planned commercial satellites called BlueBirds.
It was launched September last year, and is essentially a giant mirror that continuously bounces sunlight toward Earth, and therefore, our eyes.