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Why are they bright? Do they have big lights flashing or is it reflection
by rcpt 3mo ago
Why are they bright? Do they have big lights flashing or is it reflection
- 0-_-0 3mo agoAnd what are they reflecting when they are in Earth's shadow?
- croes 3mo agoThey aren’t in the Earth’s shadow at the start of the night > For the SpaceX satellite mega-constellation, he found that dozens of trails would appear in each image taken two hours into the night with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile Not to mention the satellites of Reflect Orbital whose sole purpose is reflecting sun light into night areas
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- layer8 3mo agoThere are a lot of night-time light sources on Earth to reflect.
- pwg 3mo agoLikely because, in space, reflective items don't heat up as much from sunlight as would a dark, energy absorbing, material. Shedding heat in space is a difficult enough endeavor already without also painting your satellite black so it reflects less light (and thereby absorbs more heat).