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- Billions among the stars: Elon Musk's satellites hinder the search for aliens
Billions among the stars: Elon Musk's satellites hinder the search for aliens
Thousands of satellites that Elon Musk and other participants in the space market are launching into low-Earth orbit create light pollution, complicating the search for signs of extraterrestrial civilizations, says astrophysicist Avi Loeb. Orbiters also pose problems for traditional astronomy, which is already being discussed at the UN level. According to experts, the problem can be solved simply by repainting the satellites in black. The scientist has been conducting a correspondence discussion with the billionaire for several years about the possible existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. This topic has taken a prominent place on the political agenda of US President Donald Trump.
Satellite glare
Numerous satellite groupings, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink, Jeff Bezos' Amazon Leo and similar competitor projects, create light pollution that hinders the scientific search for extraterrestrial civilizations, according to astrophysicist Avi Loeb. He heads the Galileo project, whose participants are searching for possible signs of alien civilizations and unusual objects in space. According to the scientist, tens of thousands of communication satellites placed by private companies in low-Earth orbit reflect light and significantly complicate observations of the sky from the Earth's surface.
— The most logical solution would be to paint the satellites black so that they reflect the minimum amount of sunlight. They should be placed in orbit less frequently to avoid the risk of collisions that could trigger an uncontrolled process of destruction and the appearance of new fragments. I hope that space companies around the world will take into account the problems of light pollution and the risk of collisions with uncontrolled vehicles," Avi Loeb told Izvestia.
Astronomers all over the world face light pollution when observing the sky. According to Stanislav Korotkov, scientific director of the Ka-Dar Observatory, as the number of spacecraft in orbit increases, this problem will only worsen.
— Its scale will depend on the number of satellites. At the moment, they are visible on all frames in the evening and in the morning, and in the dead of night they do not interfere much yet. But if the number of devices increases by an order of magnitude or more, it will complicate surveillance at night," he said.
Scientists are discussing the problem both within the United States and on interstate platforms. This includes the United Nations and the International Astronomical Union, Vadim Krushinsky, a researcher at the UrFU Laboratory of Astrochemical Research, explained to Izvestia.
— Synoptic surveys have become particularly important in astronomy now, when the entire sky is examined in order to find various anomalous phenomena that can lead scientists to new physics. A good example of such work is the new telescope at the Vera Rubin Observatory in the mountains of Chile. Satellites pose a serious threat to such research, as they create the same anomalous phenomena. It will take a lot of time and resources to filter the data from them," the astronomer said.
In his opinion, painting the satellites black can really help.
Avi Loeb's Galileo project is aimed at monitoring near-Earth and near-solar space to search for possible signs of extraterrestrial civilizations. It is a wide-field multimodal observation program that uses optical, infrared, and radio bands. For effective operation, it is necessary to monitor at least the entire near-Earth space, but this level of observation is still far away. Currently, the systems used are equipped with low-sensitivity receivers that can detect only the brightest sources, Alexander Panov, a leading researcher at the D.V. Skobeltsyn Moscow State University Institute of Nuclear Physics, told Izvestia.
— A very effective method of searching for Earth-type civilizations could be based on detecting signals similar to the operation of airfield, military or space radars, which are used to track satellites and space debris. However, to register such signals from thousands of light-years away, space radio telescopes with antennas several tens of kilometers in size would be required. This does not go beyond the technical capabilities of the Earth's civilization, but to create such systems, a public and scientific inquiry is needed, which is not yet available," he noted.
According to some researchers, Avi Loeb is losing scientific credibility with his interest in finding aliens.
— As an astrophysicist, he was and remains a very strong scientist — a truly excellent specialist. But his current media activity does not go well with his academic reputation," said Vladimir Surdin, senior researcher at the P.K. Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, associate professor at the Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University.
Nathan Eismont, a leading researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, agrees with him.
— Avi Loeb discredited himself with sensational hypotheses about aliens, unusual maneuvers of the 3I/ATLAS object, etc. This is not done for the sake of science, but to attract attention and, possibly, funding," he believes.
How Trump is gaining electoral points
There are three themes in American society around which the belief in a state conspiracy has been alive for decades: the assassination of Kennedy, the events of September 11, and the mysteries of Area 51. As Konstantin Blokhin, an American political scientist, noted in a conversation with Izvestia, Trump consistently went through all three - declassified documents on Kennedy, on the 2001 terrorist attacks, and now on UFOs. According to the expert, the president is trying to present himself as a leader who, unlike his predecessors, tells the truth — and thus works for a part of the electorate that has long distrusted official institutions. According to Pew Research, two—thirds of Trump's voters do not have a college degree, the largest gap between supporters of the two parties in the last three election cycles.
From May to July 2026, the Pentagon published four packages of declassified documents from the archives of the special services. The most curious is the report from June 5: in October 2023, federal agents recorded a large orange ball in the sky, from which smaller red spheres flew out. To study such cases, the White House, the Pentagon, intelligence and the FBI have created a Scientific Advisory Council on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Avi Loeb, former head of the Harvard Department of Astronomy and author of more than 1,000 scientific papers, was invited to head it. Loeb has long been known for his willingness to seriously consider the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial origin of anomalies.
Loeb has a long-standing public conflict with Elon Musk. Back in 2023, the astrophysicist publicly responded to the entrepreneur's TV statements that "there is no evidence of the existence of aliens." In May 2024, Loeb published an open appeal on Medium with a proposal for joint research. In December of the same year, he also offered a financial bet: everyone bets a percentage of the fortune, and the money goes to the general fund to search for technological traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. On June 25, 2026, at a hearing in the U.S. Senate, Loeb repeated the challenge. Musk has not publicly responded.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the former head of the Pentagon's anomaly office, told the AP that Loeb does not have authority in the scientific community and has no experience in national security issues. Apparently, this is not a problem for Trump. The approval rate for his work as president of the United States in early August 2026 averages about 38%, while the disapproval rate remains at around 59%. In these circumstances, it is important for the White House to score additional political points ahead of the midterm congressional elections to be held in the fall.
We were working on the material: Denis Gritsenko, Anton Bely, Andrey Korshunov and Alisa Voloshina.
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