Experts have stated that the Qianfan satellite (天帆, meaning “Thousand Sails”) recently launched by China is bright enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye at night, surpassing the limits set by astronomical agencies.
Even more mysterious satellites will be launched in the coming years, some of which may be even brighter than the satellites we have seen, potentially causing “shock” among scientists and space enthusiasts.
China’s Qianfan satellite launched last August.
Qianfan is a “super constellation” communication satellite produced by the state-owned Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). It is a competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, designed to provide high-speed internet globally. Very little information about this project or the design of the new spacecraft has been disclosed, but Chinese media previously revealed that the country aims to launch up to 15,000 satellites into space by 2030.
The first batch of Qianfan satellites was launched on August 6 aboard a Long March 6A rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. This mission successfully deployed 18 satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO). However, the second stage of the rocket subsequently broke apart, scattering over 300 pieces of space debris in LEO, which could pose a danger.
In a recent article, astronomers analyzed the first ground observations of the newly deployed satellites. Initial sightings indicate that the satellites are much brighter than expected.
Scientists warn that some Qianfan satellites are scheduled to be deployed at even lower altitudes in LEO, meaning they could be 1 to 2 degrees brighter than the satellites observed in the new study. If this massive constellation begins to form, it will negatively impact both professional and amateur astronomical activities unless operators reduce their brightness, researchers wrote in the article.
In addition to polluting the night sky with light, this communication satellite could also disrupt radio astronomy by leaking radiation into space, which remains an issue with the latest generation of Starlink satellites. However, further observations are needed to determine whether the Qianfan satellites share this problem.
Satellite constellations have been criticized for increasing the likelihood of collisions between spacecraft in LEO, creating space debris, being knocked off orbit by solar storms, and polluting the upper atmosphere with metal pollution as they burn up upon re-entry.
