The 1.7 million satellites that companies are aiming to launch into Earth's orbit in the coming years will have "devastating consequences for astronomy," new research warned on Wednesday.
The plans to swarm Earth with huge, extremely bright satellites represent an "existential threat" to telescopes viewing the universe, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) which conducted the research.
To retain humanity's ability to properly explore the night sky, the team of researchers called for a maximum limit of 100,000 satellites orbiting Earth.
The study is the first to calculate how much the constellations of big and particularly bright satellites being planned would impact astronomical observations by making the night sky brighter.
The number of satellites orbiting Earth has now reached 14,000 after surging in recent years, many of them part of trillionaire Elon Musk's Starlink internet constellation.
