巴西上空的星链卫星迹线

2019 December 10

Starlink Satellite Trails over Brazil
Image Credit & Copyright: Egon Filter

Explanation: What are those streaks over the horizon? New Starlink satellites reflecting sunlight. SpaceX launched 60 Starlink communication satellites in May and 60 more in November. These satellites and thousands more are planned by communications companies in the next few years that may make streaks like these relatively common. Concern has been voiced by many in the astronomical community about how reflections from these satellites may affect future observations into space. In the pictured composite of 33 exposures, parallel streaks from Starlink satellites are visible over southern Brazil. Sunflowers dot the foreground, while a bright meteor was caught by chance on the upper right. Satellite reflections are not new — the constellation of 66 first-generation Iridium satellites launched starting 20 years ago produced some flares so bright that they could be seen during the day. Most of these old Iridium satellites, however, have been de-orbited over the past few years.

巴西上空的星链卫星迹线
影像来源与版权: Egon Filter

说明：地平线上空的那些条痕是什么？它们是正在反射阳光的星链卫星。SpaceX在今年5月份发射了60颗星链通信卫星，11月份又发射了60多颗卫星。在接下来几年里，通信公司将计划发射成千上万颗卫星，这可能会使类似这样的条痕变得相对常见。许多天文学界人士对这些卫星的反射会如何影响太空的未来观测都表示担忧。在这幅由33张曝光照片结合而成的影像中，星链卫星的平行条痕在巴西南部上空清晰可见。向日葵点缀了影像前景，而一颗明亮的流星被偶然捕捉在影像的右上方。卫星的反照光并不新鲜，20年前发射的66颗第一代铱卫星会产生在白天都看得见的亮闪。然而，这些旧的铱卫星在过去几年间就已经脱离了地球轨道。