Scientists say Elon Musk’s orbital data centers could blind Earth’s biggest telescopes

If Elon Musk has his way, stargazing could soon be impossible. Starlink, one of Musk’s businesses, sells high-speed internet access to places around the globe that traditional internet providers often can’t reach. In the process, the company has launched a fleet of satellites that orbit the planet so densely and visibly that they are often referred to as a man-made “mega-constellation”—and not everyone is happy about it. The European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental agency running some of the world’s most powerful space telescopes, cautions that further clogging up the night...