Elon Musk claimed that his satellite internet venture Starlink has over 1,500 satellites orbiting above Earth. Elon Musk also stated that service would be available around the globe by the end of next month, except for the poles.Musk announced the news Tuesday at Mobile World Congress. He spoke about Starlink's ability reach remote communities without internet access.He said that Starlink is meant for areas with low population density.Musk smiled at Musk's reference to the sex and weed numbers, "We recently passed a strategically significant number of 69.420 active users." We're on our way, I believe, to having a few hundred thousand users and possibly over 500,000 users in 12 months.Musk said that version 2 of the satellite will be launched next year. He did not share any details, but Musk stated that it was "significantly more capable".Starlink satellites can also be seen at night with the naked eye, looking like a string lights. This can be an amazing sight for Starlink users or fans of orbital infrastructure. However, it can also be frustrating for amateur and professional astronomers.Samantha Lawler, an astronomer, told Gizmodo that Starlink constellations could hinder her ability to observe the object that is currently hurtling through the solar system. It measures 50-230 miles in diameter. Although it's a small, icy mass right now, the sun could heat it enough to make it the largest comet ever observed."Depressingly, now we know that the Vera Rubin Telescope will be severely hampered due to megaconstellations satellites like Starlink. So we might not get all of this information as we hoped and might miss discovering many of them because of light pollution from satellites," she stated.Starlink plans to launch up to 30,000 additional satellites.
