Of late stargazers and space enthusiasts are witnessing some over-bright constellations of satellites in the sky making one of the space enthusiasts ask SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk about the phenomenon on Twitter. Pat came Musk’s reply, who said that the over brightness of the satellites is being caused due to some angle positioning of the solar panels. Musk also promised that the company is going to “fix” the brightness of the satellite, BBC reported.

Is there a reason that the satellites have been brighter than before, a space enthusiast had asked Musk on Twitter. Replying to the tweet in a matter of factly manner, Musk curtly replied that it is solar panel angle during orbit raise and the company is fixing it.

 

As part of its large-scale broadband internet connectivity project Starlink, the company has positioned many large satellites in the lower orbits of the Earth. The latest launch of the internet satellite was conducted on Wednesday by the company. SpaceX is aiming at installing more than 12000 satellites in the Earth’s orbit as part of the Starlink project. The project is expected to help raise internet connectivity in different parts of the world.

The reason for the noticeable change in the brightness of the recently-installed satellite is the large size and close proximity with the Earth, BBC reported. The presence of the wide flat panels also does not help and reflects more bright light. SpaceX is reportedly working on the “sunshade” which will reduce the reflection from the satellites in its future launch.

Astronauts have expressed concern about the growing number of satellite constellations in space. The bright light reflected from the satellites may damage the camera of the astronauts which are only capable of taking images in dim light, Dr Jonathan Mcdowell, an astronomer at the Centre for Astrophysics, a research centre at Harvard University told BBC. At the same time he also acknowledged the efforts on the part of the company to find ways to lessen their brightness.

Apart from the brightness of the satellites, the increasing traffic of the satellites may also lead to collisions which could damage machines and send materials floating down to Earth, the reprot added