Hubble space telescope images2/1/2024 ![]() In this study, we quantify the past and current impact of higher-orbit satellites on HST images. However, so far there has been no quantitative assessment of how frequently satellites appear in HST images. 21 proposed an algorithm for users to detect and mask satellites in their individual HST ACS observations. Satellite trails have been recognized as anomalies in HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) images 20. The other concern is that these artificial satellites will become space debris, increasing the amount of space junk and the potential of HST colliding with a debris object 17, 19. HST is thus sensitive to other satellites situated in higher orbits that, depending on the solar illumination angle, position and telescope pointing, can affect the observations by causing bright streaks of light across the HST images. Launched in 1990, the orbit of HST is slowly decaying due to atmospheric drag 18, now being at a mean altitude of 538 km above the surface of the Earth. Shara and Johnston 17 warned about this three decades ago: ‘artificial Earth satellites will cross the fields of view of operating HST science instruments with distressingly high brightnesses and frequencies’. With the growing number of artificial satellites currently planned, the fraction of Hubble Space Telescope images crossed by satellites will increase in the next decade and will need further close study and monitoring.Īrtificial satellites can affect the observations of space-based telescopes in low Earth orbit (LEO) such as the iconic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This fraction depends on the size of the field of view, exposure time, filter used and pointing. We find that a fraction of 2.7% of the individual exposures with a typical exposure time of 11 minutes are crossed by satellites and that the fraction of satellite trails in the images increases with time. ![]() With the help of volunteers on a citizen science project ( and a deep learning algorithm, we scanned the archive of Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 20. ![]() Here we report the first measurements, to our knowledge, of artificial satellite contamination on observations from a low Earth orbit made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Observations affected by artificial satellites can become unusable for scientific research, wasting a growing fraction of the research budget on costly infrastructures and mitigation efforts. The recent launch of low Earth orbit satellite constellations is creating a growing threat for astronomical observations with ground-based telescopes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 that has alarmed the astronomical community 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
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