Aswin Sekhar May 2026

But Sekhar’s planetary defense philosophy extends beyond impacts. He argues that we have become fixated on “planet-killers” like the dinosaur-ending Chicxulub impactor, ignoring the far more frequent threat of airbursts (like Chelyabinsk in 2013 or Tunguska). His research advocates for a global, decentralized network of small telescopes to detect meter-sized objects that currently slip past our survey telescopes. "We are not ready for the next Tunguska," he warned in a 2021 lecture, "because we are looking for mountains, not houses." In the last five years, Aswin Sekhar has pivoted significantly toward a pressing, man-made threat: satellite megaconstellations . Projects like Starlink (SpaceX), OneWeb, and Project Kuiper (Amazon) plan to launch tens of thousands of communication satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

He is not anti-technology; rather, he advocates for binding international treaties on satellite reflectivity, maximum numbers per orbital shell, and mandatory deorbiting timelines. "The night sky is a global commons," Sekhar states frequently, "like the high seas or the Antarctic. No corporation should own the view of the stars." In 2020, the world was electrified by the announcement of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus—a potential biosignature. Aswin Sekhar entered the fray not as a direct discoverer, but as a critical synthesizer. He co-authored papers examining non-biological sources for phosphine (such as volcanic activity or lightning) and challenged the astronomical community to adopt stricter standards for "biogenic claims." aswin sekhar

He is also consulting for the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) on a proposed "Dark and Quiet Skies" resolution. "We are not ready for the next Tunguska,"

Sekhar has coined the term "orbital light pollution" to describe the cumulative effect of satellite trails on professional observatories. His unique contribution is linking this to . He asks: If we cannot see the Milky Way from Earth because of artificial satellites, how will future generations develop a cosmic perspective? How will we detect faint, potentially biogenic signals from exoplanets if our instruments are saturated by reflections from LEO debris? "The night sky is a global commons," Sekhar