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Huge new satellite outshines nearly every star in the sky

At times, the enormous telecommunications spacecraft is brighter than some of the most iconic stars visible from Earth.
  1. Shannon Hall
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On some nights, one of the brightest objects in the sky is neither a planet nor a star. It is a telecommunications satellite called BlueWalker 3, which at times outshines 99% of the stars visible from a dark location on Earth, according to observations reported today in Nature1.

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Nature 622, 223-224 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03054-x

Listen to the associated podcast, ‘Astronomers are worried by a satellite brighter than most stars’.

References

  1. Nandakumar, S. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06672-7 (2023).

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