And Amazon intends to launch an additional 3,000 satellites into multiple orbits.Īs they travel across the sky, scattering the Sun’s light, dark constellations become even fainter - further desecrating Indigenous knowledge and kinship with the environment.įurther research on the impacts of mega-constellations have found that as they orbit Earth, the Sun’s rays are reflected off them and scattered into the atmosphere. The company plans to launch another 30,000 over the next decade.īritish company OneWeb has launched nearly 150 satellites, with plans for another 6,000. Since 2018, the Starlink project, run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has launched about 1,700 satellites into low Earth orbit. Mega-constellations are groupings of satellites that communicate and work together as they orbit Earth.

If left unchallenged, these companies risk overpopulating an already crowded space environment – potentially pushing dark skies to extinction.

The modern-day space race has led to thousands of satellites being scattered through Earth’s outer orbits. It is an example of a dark constellation, which means it’s characterized by particularly dark patches in the sky, rather than stars.Ĭonversely, space technology companies such as Starlink are increasingly competing to dominate the skies, and potentially change them forever. One of the most well-known and celebrated Aboriginal constellations is the Emu in the Sky, which appears in the southern sky early in the year. This ancient star knowledge was meticulously ingrained with practical knowledge of the land, sky, waters, community and the Dreaming - and passed down through generations. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples worldwide have observed, tracked, and memorized all the visible objects in the night sky.

Astronomy by Karlie Noon