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Satellite Pollution

|< < Prev #3225 (March 27, 2026)

Title text: We're working to make sure the images are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, with a minimum number of sponsored galaxies.

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Explanation

A common concern with new satellite constellations like Starlink is that because that they rely on large numbers, they make ground-based astronomy more difficult by adding more noise, such as disruptive satellite flare producing something like star trails during normal observations. They may also possibly obscure targets, though as the background stars (or even most other astronomical objects) is greatly outpaced by most examples of artificial satellite (especially those in low Earth orbit), this would be a momentary occultation at best, and longer term observations should at least give some opportunities to salvage some decent data.

This comic satirizes this, by talking about a hypothetical satellite company that knowingly launches inaccurate star maps to be overlaid across the night sky. This would not only obscure a fair amount of stars from view, but also show stars that don't actually exist in the night sky, thus providing confusion for an astronomer who fails to identify the interference, and annoyance for any that can.

Of course, such a plan would have many problems in implementing, such as the pure size and strength needed for the banner to survive in space while being large enough to be noticed by casual observers. Also, the banner would need to have its own light source, powerful enough to be seen from earth. Depending on the distance the banner is from the earth, it would be easy to make lights capable of being visible from our planet. See the laser pointer "What-If".

One explanation for why anyone would do this is in the title text which implies that the company is somehow offering sponsorship to certain galaxies, despite galaxies not being known for being sentient, or able to provide a sponsorship. It is unclear how exactly these sponsorships are being done, possibly doing banners to advertise certain galaxies, though what for is unknown. Possibly to encourage people to visit the various sponsored galaxies, although many of them would be incredibly far away and unreachable by current space travel.

This comic may have a connection to the "collapse" of Google Image Search, where trying to find a real picture of a historical event or scientific phenomenon will now produce an overwhelmingly intrusive quantity of results produced by generative AI and easily mistaken as fact.

Transcript

[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the left, Cueball is on the right, in front of a poster on the wall. The poster has a portion of the Earth at the bottom, with outer space above it. The space scene has lots of stars, along with a few nebulae and galaxies. Part of the space scene is enclosed in a quadrilateral (apparently a rectangle skewed by perspective) which is attached at the middle of its left side to a much smaller object. Its upper edge shows that it has a little thickness, or at least a parallel stiffening frame rather than being two-dimensional.]

Ponytail: Aren't you worried these will be disruptive for ground-based astronomy?

Cueball: No, why?

[Caption below comic:]

My new company is being criticized for our satellites that deploy 100-mile-wide banners painted with inaccurate pictures of the night sky.

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