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According to scientists, the rush for faster and more widespread internet makes it more difficult to understand the cosmos.
The Starlink satellites of SpaceX are supposed to circle the earth and offer fast internet in regions that could otherwise be under -supplied. The company has launched thousands of them in recent years to cover the planet with signals.
However, the researchers found that the satellites disturb the radio astronomy and stand in the way of the view of the astronomers in the way.
The satellites left unintentional signals that thunder over the often very weak radio waves with which astronomers see the universe.
The new work of Curtin University has looked at SpaceX ‘Starlink, as it contains most satellites in orbit. However, a number of other companies want to use satellites to offer faster and widespread internet.
In research, scientists collected 76 million images of heaven with an early version of the square kilometer array, which will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world when it is finished later this decade.
In this data, scientists found more than 112,000 radio emissions from 1,806 Starlink satellites. These emissions could make it much more difficult for scientists to see the important radio signals they depend on.
“Starlink is the most direct and most common source for potential interference for radio astronomy: During the four -month data acquisition of this study alone, it launched 477 satellites,” said Dylan Grigg, who headed the study.
“In some data records we found that up to 30 percent of our pictures showed disturbances from a Starlink satellite.”
Many of these signals have not been deliberately emitted from the satellites and are more than expected at different frequencies. This could make it difficult for the researchers to choose them.
“Some satellites have been detected in ribbons in which no signals are said to be available at all, such as the 703 satellites, which we identified at 150.8 MHz, which is to be protected for the radio astronomy,” said Grigg.
“Since you may come from components such as the onboard electronics and are not part of a deliberate signal, astronomers cannot easily predict or filter out.”
This interference could finally prevent us from understanding deep truths of the cosmos, warned the researchers.
“We are on the edge of a golden era in which the SKA will contribute to answering the greatest questions in science: how the first stars have formed, which dark matter is and even Einstein’s theories,” said Steven Tingay, who helped the author of the study.
“But it needs radio silence to be successful. We recognize the deep advantages of global connectivity, but we need a balance, and that begins with the understanding of the problem that is the goal of our work.”
