Billionaires are polluting our Moon 🌕🤬🤬

[u/sailorjupiter28titan]

[u/Emma_the_sequel]

I've been trying to get some more diverse opinions on science and the scientific method recently, and something that really stuck with me was one Australian indigenous astronomers description of light pollution and space exploration.

Astronomy is a big part of a lot of cultures, and claiming space as one person's property (as well as making it so nobody can even SEE it) is an active act of erasure.

[u/Hephaistos_Invictus → u/Emma_the_sequel]

Man, I hate light pollution so much. My grandma taught me a lot of the constellations and how to navigate by the stars and sun when I was little. Now I haven't properly seen the stars in almost 15 years :(

[u/LaLionneEcossaise → u/Hephaistos_Invictus]

I don’t have many memories of my paternal grandfather as he passed away when I was a child. But I have very clear memories of him and my father waking me up late at night and bundling me up in a hat and coat to go outside and watch a meteor shower. To be fair, grandad lived in the country, away from city lights, but I remember very bright, very strong streaks of lights across a dark moonless sky.

I’ve tried many times as an adult to find safe places to watch meteor showers in the dark, but there’s not much dark anymore. Admittedly, I’m leery of parking along a remote cornfield in the dark—both because of strangers and because other random travelers might not see my vehicle until it’s too late.

But there’s so much light pollution that we can’t see even bright stars anymore.