Years ago, if you joined a stargazing party in a rural area, you could admire a dark night sky that was largely free of manmade light pollution. Those days may be behind us now. Satellite companies are rushing to launch small satellites into low orbits of Earth to provide fast internet access to remote places. These satellites form artificial mega-constellations that are quickly changing the night sky. For instance, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched around 1,300 small satellites into space as part of its Starlink internet service, and SpaceX has already gotten permission to launch 12,000 of them. Now, even in the darkest places on Earth, the night sky is contaminated by the trajectories of these small satellites, which can sometimes be seen with the naked eye. The problem is especially severe for the astronomy community. According to a new paper recently accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the …