It’s getting harder and harder for the Hubble and other telescopes orbiting Earth to capture pristine images thanks to the sudden surge in satellite launches. Satellite trails could mess up nearly 40 percent of images the Hubble takes and up to 96 percent of those taken by three other telescopes over the next decade, according to a study by NASA researchers published today in the journal Nature.

That could jeopardize scientists’ ability to spot worrisome asteroids or discover new planets, they warn. Our view of space just gets fuzzier without efforts to limit light pollution from new megaconstellations of satellites.

The scale of the problem is astounding

“My career has been focused on trying to make telescopes see better … try to make the telescopes more sensitive, more precise, gettin

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