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> 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 constella
by defrost 4mo 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 4mo agoThank 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 4mo 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.