Brendan Larsen took hundreds of photos of the night sky over Mount Taranaki in New Zealand's North Island, The Guardian reports. His final image shows the sky criss-crossed by satellite trails, and some viewers have claimed it was made with AI.

Larsen shot for two hours in September, The Guardian reports. He set his camera to take eight-second shots with a two-second gap between each one. “I left her running for two hours and captured 578 photos,” he said.

New Scientist also reports 578 exposures of eight seconds each over almost two hours.

Larsen then layered the photos on top of each other, The Guardian reports. Much of the work was erasing stars to reveal the satellites, it says.

The image shows an estimated 14,000 satellite trails, New Scientist reports. “That doesn’t mean 14,000 satellites flew past in 2 hours, because individual satellites appeared in multiple exposures,” New Scientist says. The Guardian puts the count at about 1,400 satellites and 14,000 trails.

Larsen posted the image in mid-October, and it drew tens of millions of views, The Guardian reports. He said it is “frustrating” to be accused of using AI, but he understands why, since AI images are getting harder to spot.

He recorded his process on video to answer the claims, The Guardian reports.

About 16,000 working satellites circle the planet, along with tens of thousands of dead spacecraft and other debris, The Guardian reports. SpaceX has deployed over 9,000 satellites since 2019 for its Starlink internet service, New Scientist reports.

Larsen said most comments call the photo beautiful but worrying for the night sky. “We can raise awareness, and through that get a groundswell of support for protecting the night sky,” he said, The Guardian reports.

What we know: The image was built from 578 photos and shows about 14,000 trails, not 14,000 satellites.
What we don't: How the count of trails was made, and whether the claims of AI use will fade.