Erasing the stars: Satellite megaconstellations are a mega problem for Earth and skyThese satellites perform valuable services to humans on Earth and even, in some respects, to other living things — for example, by helping us monitor planet-heating emissions. In fact, recent research suggests they will be key to improving our data on CO2 emissions. Dr. John Barentine, an astronomer, dark sky consultant and historian of astronomy in Arizona, even pointed to the background image he uses for video calls as he spoke with Salon: it's a global composite image of Earth made by remote sensing platforms in space. "Without them," he said, "we would not have anything approaching the understanding of the problem that we do have."
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Daily Briefing: Quote Of The Day“If anything, it is giving us more encouragement to continue to do this work, because it is the morally, philosophically and politically right thing to do.”
Astronomer John Barentine responds to changes made to the biography of astronomer Vera Rubin on the website of the Rubin Observatory. These seem to be in response to executive orders issued by US president Donald Trump, which banned federal funding related to topics including diversity, equity and inclusion As the night sky grows crowded, astronomers face a growing problemAt the AAS meeting, the largest annual conference for astronomers, the organization announced it had adopted a new resolution opposing the development of what is known as “obtrusive space advertising,” or satellites in orbit displaying advertising images that can be seen from the ground. Just like satellite megaconstellations, astronomers worry such advertising could interfere with their observations.
That concern is, for now, largely a theoretical one. In the United States, federal law has banned obtrusive space advertising for decades, but John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of the AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), said the AAS is worried that other nations, like Russia, might allow it. “There is reason to believe that this activity will be pursued globally,” he said at a briefing during the AAS meeting. “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try.” Scientists alarmed as Rubin Observatory changes biography of astronomer Vera Rubin amid Trump's push to end DEI effortsAstronomers are expressing disappointment and alarm as the federally-funded Rubin Observatory altered the biography of renowned astronomer Vera Rubin, for whom the facility is named, on its website. The amended version curtails her legacy of championing women in science and removes all mentions of the observatory's efforts to reduce barriers for women and other historically underrepresented groups in the field.
"No executive order, no political edict is going to undermine or end our efforts to make the scientific workforce look more like our people," astronomer John Barentine told Space.com. "If anything, it is giving us more encouragement to continue to do this work, because it is the morally, philosophically and politically right thing to do." Space Industry Adds Threats to Astronomy, Light Pollution Remains a Big ProblemOverall, diffuse brightening of the sky remains a more difficult problem to address than launches, satellites, or even space billboards. Our night sky has been growing rapidly brighter, at a rate as high as 10% per year, even affecting major observatories.
“I think it is fair to say that right now the bigger concern for ground-based astronomy is certainly light pollution, by far,” said John Barentine (Dark Sky Consulting), also speaking at the AAS meeting. “Artificial light at night emissions have been rising around the world at a fairly alarming rate.” Laser Billboards in the Sky? Space Advertising Is Here And Astronomers Want It Stopped Before It StartsIt sounds like something from the Blade Runner franchise, but space advertising could present a real challenge, and at the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society earlier this month, the organisation called for this to be nipped in the bud. This kind of advertising is banned in the United States but companies are using workarounds, and in other countries, there is still a big problem coming if space advertising is not controlled. John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), warned about the potential issues of advertising payloads: “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try,” he said. “I think the commercial value will prompt somebody to do it.” Astronomers seek global ban on space advertisingObtrusive space advertising is defined in U.S. federal law as “advertising in outer space that is capable of being recognized by a human being on the surface of the Earth without the aid of a telescope or other technological device.” Such advertising is banned in federal law through prohibitions on granting launch licenses for missions carrying payloads to carry out space advertising.
While that federal ban has been in place for decades, John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), said at the briefing there is growing concern that companies in other nations would launch obtrusive space advertising payloads. “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try,” he said. “I think the commercial value will prompt somebody to do it.” The Night Sky Is In Danger And Astronomers Are Stepping Up To Protect It“A problem for us with light pollution on the ground is the ongoing world transition to LED technology, which has made light at night very inexpensive to consume,” Dr John Barentine, the Executive Officer and Principal Consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, told IFLScience. “In the last decade, the brightness of the night sky has been rising around the world on the order of about 10 percent per year on average.”
“We don't want to roll back any progress,” Dr Barentine explained. “The satellite operators have a right to be in space, just as we have a right to access space for astronomy purposes. So we're actively working with them to try to find a solution that is as much of an agreement on the basics as we can reach to where they're able to conduct their activities without causing undue interference to what we're doing.” SpaceX's new direct-to-cell Starlink satellites are way brighter than the originalsWhile DTCs are brighter objects, they move at a faster apparent rate and spend more time in Earth's shadow than regular Starlinks, which would offset some of their negative impact on astronomy observations, the study noted.
"I see it as a tradeoff in parameters rather than an absolute better/worse kind of situation," John Barentine, a principal consultant at Arizona-based Dark Sky Consulting who was not involved with the new study, told Space.com. |
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