New"star signs" have been identified above Earth made of defunct satellites and old rocket parts to draw attention to the worsening space debris problem.
The constellations were put together based on real space debris tracking data collected by Privateer, but unlike their better-known stellar constellations, these can't be observed from Earth. In fact, the constellations each only existed for one short moment asAI was used to find patterns in Privateer's data, and the constellations were then timestamped to mark the moment in which they were discovered, the project's spokesperson told Space.com in an email.
The constellations were selected to highlight the most devastating consequences of the space debris problem. For example, the Broken Compass, spotted above Bermuda in January 2023, points to the damage that space junk could cause to global positioning and navigational satellites such as theSimilarly, The Great 404 — captured above West Africa in February 2023 — signifies the repercussions of the destruction of internet-beaming satellites that connect isolated communities worldwide.