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Agreed, I think the entire issue can be resolved with more telescopes in orbit. I can understand European Southern Observatory (ESO) being concerned about beco

Agreed, I think the entire issue can be resolved with more telescopes in orbit. I can understand European Southern Observatory (ESO) being concerned about becoming obsolete, but is the astronomy community as a whole concerned about the issue? I understand there's currently around 722 observatories (some defunct, some are in orbit) based on this source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronomical_observatories#Observatories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronomical_observato... But perhaps there are others I am unaware of. Quoted: Hainaut explains that "satellites, illuminated by the Sun, are much brighter than distant galaxies. When a satellite crosses what we observe, it makes a bright streak on our image, zapping whatever is behind it." It sounds like this only affects visible light telescopes.

defrost 3mo ago
> sounds like this only affects visible light telescopes. Nope - it's also an issue with radio telescopes, and radio arrays such as SKA The Starlink constellation is leaking radio interference in bands it pinky promised it wouldn't and the issue got worse with successive generations despite assurances it would be addressed. Such leakage isn't, of course, limited to dawn / dusk - it's ever present and ongoing.
- SapporoChris 3mo ago
  Thank you for the correction. "An analysis of 76 million images from a prototype station for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope found Starlink satellite emissions affected up to 30% of images in some datasets" https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-million-radio-telescope-images-find-starlink-satellite-interference-where-no-signals-are-supposed-to-be-present https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-millio... 30% sounds massive, but I wish they had given more detail to how much the images had been compromised.
  - defrost 3mo ago
    "Technically" all Starlink have to do <cough> is turn off / dial back their sats when they transit over (say) the Murchison Radio Quiet Zone. I understand that can be tricky; cycling things on and off multiple times during orbital lifetime is more hardware stress inducing than leaving things static - but there isn't a lot of evidence of much effort being made on that problem aside from some insincere(?) lip service.
kmaitreys 3mo ago
What about ground based telescopes and interferometers which enable observations with much much larger baseline? Space-based and ground-based telescopes are complementary to each other. You can't replace one out for the other.

defrost 3mo ago

> sounds like this only affects visible light telescopes. Nope - it's also an issue with radio telescopes, and radio arrays such as SKA The Starlink constellation is leaking radio interference in bands it pinky promised it wouldn't and the issue got worse with successive generations despite assurances it would be addressed. Such leakage isn't, of course, limited to dawn / dusk - it's ever present and ongoing.

SapporoChris 3mo ago
Thank you for the correction. "An analysis of 76 million images from a prototype station for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope found Starlink satellite emissions affected up to 30% of images in some datasets" https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-million-radio-telescope-images-find-starlink-satellite-interference-where-no-signals-are-supposed-to-be-present https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-millio... 30% sounds massive, but I wish they had given more detail to how much the images had been compromised.
- defrost 3mo ago
  "Technically" all Starlink have to do <cough> is turn off / dial back their sats when they transit over (say) the Murchison Radio Quiet Zone. I understand that can be tricky; cycling things on and off multiple times during orbital lifetime is more hardware stress inducing than leaving things static - but there isn't a lot of evidence of much effort being made on that problem aside from some insincere(?) lip service.

kmaitreys 3mo ago

What about ground based telescopes and interferometers which enable observations with much much larger baseline? Space-based and ground-based telescopes are complementary to each other. You can't replace one out for the other.