A group of researchers from Western University has published a very unusual photo. It shows traces left by polar satellites.
It is almost impossible to imagine the modern world without satellites. They provide internet, communication, navigation, and weather forecasts. And their importance will only grow in the future. The flip side of the coin is that every year, Earth’s orbit gets more crowded with spacecraft. This not only increases the risk of collisions between them and space debris, which could lead to unpredictable consequences, but also significantly complicates the work of astronomers.
In order to assess the scale of the problem, researchers from Western University in Canada, in collaboration with Defense Research and Development Canada, decided to create their own network for monitoring objects in polar orbits. As a source of inspiration, scientists used systems designed to track meteor activity. They consist of cameras pointed at different angles to cover the entire night sky.
To clearly demonstrate the traffic in orbit, scientists published an image taken by their system on the evening of February 22, 2025. Each white stripe in the image is a trail left by a satellite. The image is composed of long-exposure photographs taken by 14 cameras. The photos were taken from the Yurika research station, located on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian province of Nunavut.
According to the researchers, the system they have created is capable of detecting objects larger than 30 cm. Its cameras are installed at four different locations in the Arctic. During their operation, they have already conducted over half a billion observations and recorded 17,000 unique objects.
According to news.westernu.ca
