Elon Musk can leave humans without a starry sky

Astronomers warn that their ability to contemplate the universe may be at risk, writes Air force.

Фото: Depositphotos

A large campaign is launching to launch satellites, which will provide high-speed Internet access from space.

But the first batch of these spacecraft, which the American company SpaceX has already put into orbit, are changing the image of the night sky.

They look like bright white stripes, so dazzling that they overshadow the stars.

Scientists worry that future "mega-constellations" of satellites could cloud images from optical telescopes and interfere with radio astronomy observations.

Dave Clements, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London, told BBC News: "The night sky belongs to everyone - and what is happening now is a shared tragedy."

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The companies that launch the satellites said they were collaborating with astronomers to minimize the impact of spacecraft.

Why do many satellites launch?

It's all about high-speed Internet access.

Unlike wires and cables with their limitations, satellites can give access to the Internet directly from space.

And if there are a lot of them in orbit, even the most remote regions will be able to get a connection.

Now only 2200 active satellites fly around the Earth.

But the Starlink constellations, a project of the American company SpaceX, will begin sending 60 satellites into orbit every few weeks. This means that about 1500 satellites will be launched by the end of the year, and by the mid-2020s there could be 12000.

British company OneWeb is targeting around 650 satellites - but this figure could rise to 2000 if there is enough demand.

At the same time, Amazon plans to create a constellation of 3200 spacecraft.

What excites astronomers?

In May and November, Starlink sent 120 satellites into orbit at an altitude of less than 500 km.

But star watchers began to worry when a spacecraft appeared in their images in the form of bright white flashes.

Dhara Patel, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: “These satellites are the size of a table, but their panels reflect a lot of sunlight. This means that we can see them in the images we take from telescopes.

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“These satellites also actively use radio waves... which means they can influence the signals that astronomers use. Therefore, this also affects radio astronomy,” the scientist adds.

She warns that as the number of satellites in orbit increases, this problem will increase.

How can this affect research?

Clements believes that satellites can have a significant effect on observations.

“They are in the foreground of the picture of the Universe that we observe from Earth. That's why they interfere. And you will see everything that is outside of them - a potentially dangerous asteroid nearby or a distant quasar in the Universe,” he says.

Фото: Depositphotos

The researcher notes that this will especially affect the operation of telescopes that make large-scale observations of the sky, such as the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile.

He explains: “With LSST and other telescopes, we want to recreate a picture of changes in the sky in real time... Right now, satellites are interfering with observations - as if someone is walking around and periodically turning on a flash.”

At the same time, Professor Martin Barstow, an astrophysicist at the University of Leicester, says some problems can be solved.

“The number of satellites seems daunting, but in reality space is large - if you put them all in the sky, their density will not be too large,” he says.

“And because the satellite locations are known, their influence can be mitigated. The satellite will be a dot in the picture, it may look like a brief flash of light, but you will be aware of it and can remove it from the image,” the scientist adds.

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“The observatories will have to make an effort to do this, but it can be done,” he concludes.

However, for radio astronomy, such constellations can pose more problems—especially for relatively new telescopes such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).

The radio signals used by the satellites will be different from those sought by astronomers, but, according to Barstow, they can still interfere.

What do companies say?

SpaceX told the BBC that they actively collaborated with international astronomers to minimize the influence of Starlink satellites.

At the next launch, they experience a special coating designed to make the spacecraft less bright.

OneWeb says it wants to be a "thought leader in responsible use of space" and is flying its satellites to an altitude of 1200 km so they do not interfere with astronomical observations.

OneWeb Vice President Ruth Pritchard-Kelly said: “We chose the orbit as part of our responsible stewardship of space... And we also communicated with members of the astronomy community before launch to ensure that our satellites would not reflect too much light and create radio interference for radio astronomy."

She added that this is not a situation in which it is necessary to make a choice between communication and astronomy.

“There is no doubt that the whole world has a right to be connected to the Internet... So it will happen,” she says.

“It's a matter of collaborating with other stakeholders to make sure we're not disrupting them—either the satellite technology that's already available, or cell phones on Earth, or the astronomical community. We know that we are looking for a solution together with everyone,” she concludes.

In the meantime, observers for the stars are left to look at the sky to see if a compromise can be reached.

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