SpaceX and others plan to launch thousands of new satellites into low-Earth orbit, creating streaks that cut through astronomers’ images. Now educators at NASA are asking citizen scientists to help document the problem. //

Astronomers have been losing the fight against light pollution for decades. Increasingly powerful lights from streetlamps, sports complexes, businesses and homes reflect their radiation into the night sky, washing out the stars. Light pollution increases about two percent each year in both areas lit and the brightness of that light, according to a 2017 study.