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Oh come now. There are a lots of orbiting objects that cause bright flashes. The flashes this particular object causes are not even that bright. I suspect that
by upofadown 9y ago
Oh come now. There are a lots of orbiting objects that cause bright flashes. The flashes this particular object causes are not even that bright. I suspect that anyone who pointed this out were not quoted... Particularly the astronomers who thought the whole thing was awesome... Astronomers are bothered by any sunlight illuminated satellite. This will make no difference at all to their lives.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare
- jvandonsel 9y agoSure, but the point of those satellites is not to make a flash in the sky. The whole point of the disco ball is to dazzle.
- dingaling 9y agoActually the older Iridium satellites were intended to make a flash in the sky. The three aluminium antennas were highly-polished for no other reason than visibility; free publicity. There were some thermal benefits but not significant. The later blocks of satellites have a different antenna design and do not reflect as much. A more sigificant astronomical impact of Iridium as a tangent, is that their transmissions on 1612 MHz interefere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl. In contrast a single 'disco ball' zipping around LEO for a few months is trivial.
- ceejayoz 9y agoDo you have a cite on it being intentionally polished to create flares? The new generation has a smaller, redesigned antenna, but I can't find anything on the original being a conscious design choice instead of just a side-effect of "we want to reflect EM as well as possible".