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Yeah, but the bright stars are a part of the Milky Way. So that doesn't address my question. And I assume these beetles do just fine in light-polluted areas.
by olegkikin 9y ago
Yeah, but the bright stars are a part of the Milky Way. So that doesn't address my question.
And I assume these beetles do just fine in light-polluted areas.
- goodcanadian 9y agoYeah, but the bright stars are a part of the Milky Way. So that doesn't address my question. I really think it does . . . in a planetarium, you can turn on or off whatever you want. In my experience, the milky way switch includes the background glow and not the bright foreground stars which are rendered separately. In these situations, I tend to give the researchers the benefit of the doubt; they generally aren't dumb people. And I assume these beetles do just fine in light-polluted areas. I make no such assumption, but even if true, it means that they are using other points of reference (like street lamps) in addition to or instead of the milky way when it is not available. That does not render the conclusion that they use the milky way as one of their references incorrect. Also, we do know that light pollution is a serious problem for some species. If there are bright lights above a beach, hatchling sea turtles will go the wrong way, heading inland instead of out to sea. Apparently, they evolved to head toward the relative brightness of the moon reflecting off the sea.
- idlewords 9y agoThe Milky Way in this context is the band of light visible on moonless nights, with no point sources. The article also addresses the question of light pollution.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]