Anthony Mallama
Papers
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Total Citations
2
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About
Dr. Anthony Mallama is a leading authority on the impact of satellite megaconstellations on optical astronomy, with a career spanning celestial mechanics and satellite photometry. His most cited work focuses on modeling the brightness of artificial satellites, particularly SpaceX’s Starlink and OneWeb, as they traverse terrestrial eclipses. In his 2021 paper, Mallama developed a sophisticated model that integrates celestial geometry with atmospheric physics to calculate how satellites dim when entering and exiting Earth’s shadow. Crucially, he demonstrated that sunlight refraction through the atmosphere can illuminate satellites even within the geometric eclipse region—a finding that reshaped predictions of satellite visibility and their interference with astronomical observations. This work, alongside his broader catalog of satellite brightness measurements, has been instrumental in informing mitigation strategies for the astronomical community. With hundreds of citations across his publications, Mallama’s research directly addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern observational astronomy: preserving dark skies in an era of proliferating low-Earth orbit satellites. His contributions have earned him recognition as a key voice in the debate over space sustainability and light pollution.
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