But in 2019, SpaceX began deploying its internet-beaming Starlink constellation, and the astronomical community started to sound alarm bells. The satellites were orbiting too low and reflected too much sunlight, leaving bright marks in telescope images. “We wanted to see how bright those streaks were and look at possible mitigation strategies,” Rawls says. Her team found that although the streaks weren’t overwhelmingly bright, they still risked affecting scientific observations. A rising forceThe number of satellites orbiting our planet has risen from a mere thousand some 15 years ago to more than 12,000 active satellites today.