Satellite Megaconstellations Threaten Radio Astronomy Observations, Expert Warns

Satellite mega constellations could place “radio quiet” in jeopardy. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF

For years, the commercial space sector has been abuzz about the prospect of satellite “super constellations” in Earth orbit. These satellites would provide everything from communications and navigation to broadband internet services.

Meanwhile, developments in small satellites (aka. CubeSats) and rideshare programs have made space more accessible to research institutes, universities, and organizations. With so many satellites in orbit, many are concerned about the impact this could have on space debris and astronomy.

Radio astronomy, which observes extremely faint emissions from astronomical objects, could suffer from all the added satellites in orbit. This was in a recent paper published on the arXiv preprint server by an international team of researchers who considered the impact of megaconstellations on radio astronomy.

While many scientists advocate establishing radio observatories on the far side of the moon, a more complete understanding of the impact satellite transmissions have on radio telescopes is needed to ensure future access to “dark” and “quiet skies.”

The study was led by Mike Peel, a postdoctoral researcher with the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London and the co-lead of Sathub, part of the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS). He was joined by colleagues from the Blackett Lab and researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington, and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKA). The paper describing their findings was presented at the 9th European Conference on Space Debris and was published on the conference proceedings website.

(Source: phys.org)