Visible Certainty: The quest for dark and quiet skies

Since the beginning of the space era in 1957, with the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, a lot changed in the space arena, and currently we face thousands of satellites orbiting our planet in low earth orbit (300-1000km). Orbits are becoming congested and contested, and ensuring the safety, security and sustainability of outer space activities is becoming a difficult challenge.Soon SpaceX will have 42000 satellites in orbit with the aim of connecting everyone everywhere. The symposium has the goal of fostering dialogue, with the aim of ensuring sustainability in space activities preserving dark and quiet skies for astronomers of today and tomorrow. Additionally, the symposium will investigate ways and means in which mega-constellations might help space scientists to better perform with their investigations. Convened by

• Andrea V. Macciò, Professor of Physics; Director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, NYUAD
• Simoneta Di Pippo, Visiting Professor of Practice of Physics, NYUAD