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SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are leaking electromagnetic radiation that’s ‘photobombing’ our attempts to study the cosmos

Live Science , By Harry Baker 2 Jul 23

New research finds that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are leaking radiation that could interfere with radio astronomy.

But in the new study, published July 3 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers have shown that Starlink satellites also emit unintended and previously unrecognized radio signals that are separate from the signals they send to and receive from our planet. Some of these signals overlap with those detected by the dishes of radio telescopes — which represents a new problem in this scientific field………………………………………………

SpaceX likely isn’t the only culprit; the researchers expect to detect similar emissions from many other satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The problem also could worsen as the number of private satellites in LEO continues to increase dramatically. For example, there were only 2,000 Starlink satellites in LEO when the data was collected, but there are now more than 4,000.

“Our simulations show that the larger the constellation, the more important this effect becomes as the radiation from all satellites adds up,” study co-author Gyula Józsa, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, said in the statement. “This makes us not only worried about the existing constellations, but even more about the planned ones.”…………………

Emitting radio signals is not the only way that satellites can interfere with astronomy. The shiny spacecraft can also reflect light back toward the planet’s surface, which can leave white streaks across time-lapse images. In December 2022, the International Astronomical Union warned that the world’s largest communication satellite, known as BlueWalker 3, is creating interference that could “severely hamper progress in our understanding of the cosmos.”  https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/spacexs-starlink-satellites-are-leaking-radiation-thats-photobombing-our-attempts-to-study-the-cosmos

July 18, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, World