Science
This is how Elon Musk’s satellites spoil the sky – Pledge Times
“It affects me a lot, but those who can cause problems are those who are dedicated to looking for comets, stars and others in telescopes, the serious thing is for science”, explains the astrophotographer Daniel Lopez. His eye-catching images of astronomical phenomena have been around the world, but on Tuesday night he ran into an unexpected problem when trying to photograph Comet Neowise from the peaks of Tenerife. As seen in the image, a platoon of SpaceX satellites, Elon Musk’s company, crossed in front of their target, perpetrating dozens of light scratches on their work. Musk intends to capitalize on his privileged access to Earth orbit with thousands of these devices, which will be an annoying eyelash in the eye of astronomers. “The proliferation of constellations of artificial satellites harms astronomical observation”, warns the Spanish Society of Astronomy (SEA).
Last week, during the SEA scientific meeting it was made public a job commissioned a scientific team to analyze the risks of these new satellite constellations that pose “a threat to astronomical observation.” Several companies such as Musk’s, which has pioneered his project StarlinkThey will fill the sky with devices that do not have among their priorities the damage they cause to science, astrophotography or exploration with future space junk. Lopez’s photo is a good example.
Musk’s project involves a swarm of at least 12,000 of these devices, weighing 260 kilos, that will completely surround the planet to make money in exchange for providing high-quality internet to their customers. For now has already released 540, which are located in the sky in colorful choreographies easily visible from the ground. Other billionaire, Jeff Bezos, plans to send some 3,000 satellites with the same purpose: to commercially exploit the sky. They should only ask permission to the American Communications Agency, which has nothing to do with scientific, astronomical or protection interests of a space that belongs to all humans.
“The impact for astronomy is practically the beginning of the end of the night”, warned the Nobel Prize winner in Physics Didier Queloz, “but the people who command these satellites do not care: they have never spoken with astronomers, or with the public” . “They are people commercializing the sky right now, they make money with it, and the consequence is that we are going to lose the sky”, Queloz sentenced, renowned astronomer who has discovered countless celestial bodies for science. Last year, there was a clash between the European Space Agency (ESA) and SpaceX, which had its aircraft at risk of collision with the scientific observation satellite Aeolus, forcing ESA to perform a “collision avoidance maneuver” for the first time. An episode that reopened the debate on spatial planning and the excessive ambition of these companies, but also on the lack of transparency of their initiatives.
“They are people commercializing the sky right now, they make money with it, and the consequence is that we are going to lose the sky”
Didier Queloz, Nobel Prize in Physics
Along with Musk’s and Bezos’s, there are similar projects from China and other private companies. “Should these projects culminate,” the SEA work warns, “the current number of artificial objects intentionally placed in orbit would more than double. These projects have considerable consequences ”. There are already several constellations of satellites, such as positioning ones such as GPS and Galileo, but they all add up to a small number of instruments, always below a hundred, astronomers explain. Some information suggests that only Starlink could deposit 42,000 satellites for SpaceX in low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station and the space telescope rest. Hubble.
The initial problem is that when the satellites periodically catch and reflect the sunlight, they interfere with observations of the sky, which is filled with annoying little mirrors at different heights, because the devices gradually move to their ideal position. This generated a great controversy among all the astronomical societies of the world, after which SpaceX promised that it would work on a series of changes that would make its future devices less annoying to look at.
Although that’s just one of the downsides. Astronomers look at the sky, but so do they listen with its gigantic radio telescopes, which capture signals caused by cosmic phenomena such as pulsars and galaxies, which emit radio waves. Telecommunications satellites emit and receive on frequencies that could interfere with those jobs, the study warns. “It must be stressed that the emissions from these systems will be present day and night, and that their intensity could not only make radio astronomical observations in the affected bands difficult, but even damage detectors designed to receive radiation from extremely weak natural sources”, alert.
The SEA study calculates many variables to study to what extent it would affect astronomical work and what the solutions would be. For example, telescopes could have alarms that warn that one of these objects is going to be crossed, but that would depend on an extraordinary exercise of transparency on the part of private companies. According to their analysis, the damage caused may not be as great as initially feared, when the satellites in very low orbits began to be filmed. But “wide-field projects”, such as the Vera Rubin Observatory, “can be greatly affected.” In February, the diagnosis of the International Astronomical Union was worse: “It is estimated that the traces of the satellite constellations will be bright enough to saturate modern detectors in large telescopes.” Astronomy will suffer, as will astrophotographers like Daniel López, who will have to get used to living with these impertinent artifacts.
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Science
Federal government announces creation of National Space Council – CBC News
Canada’s space sector received a boost from the federal government in its budget, both in terms of money and vision.
The 2024 budget included a proposal for $8.6 million in 2024-25 to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), which invests in technologies for humanity’s return to the moon and beyond.
In addition to the funding, the federal government also announced the creation of a National Space Council, which will be “a new whole-of-government approach to space exploration, technology development, and research.”
For Space Canada, an organization comprised of roughly 80 space sector companies including some of Canada’s largest, such as Magellan Aerospace, Maritime Launch and MDA, it was a welcome announcement.
“We’ve been advocating for it since the inception of our organization, and we were really very happy, and we applaud the federal government’s commitment announced in the budget,” said Brian Gallant, CEO of Space Canada.
Gallant said that investment in space is an investment in Canada.
“Two-thirds of space sector jobs are STEM jobs. These are good paying solid jobs for Canadians. And on top of that, we have approximately $2.8 billion that is injected into the Canadian economy because of the space sector,” he said.
The U.S. formed its National Space Council in 1989, but it was disbanded in 1992 and reestablished in 2017.
In the 2023 budget, the government announced proposed spending of $1.2 billion over 13 years, that was to begin in 2024-25, to the CSA’s contribution of a lunar utility vehicle that would assist astronauts on the moon. The as–yet–developed vehicle could help astronauts move cargo from landing sites to habitats, perform science investigations or support them during spacewalks on the surface of the moon.
It also proposed to invest $150 million over five years for the LEAP program.
MDA, the company behind Canadarm, was also pleased with the announcement.
“Canada has an enviable global competitive advantage in space and the creation of a National Space Council is critical to Canada maintaining that leadership position,” CEO Mike Greenley said in an email to CBC News.
“Space is now a rapidly growing, highly strategic and competitive domain, and there is a real and urgent need to recognize its importance to the lives of Canadians and to our economy and national security.”
The next project for MDA is Canadarm3, which will be part of Lunar Gateway, a international space station that will orbit the moon. It will serve as a sort of jumping-off point for astronauts heading to the moon and eventually beyond.
“The Lunar Gateway is a great opportunity for Canada and for MDA Space to not only provide the next generation of Canadarm robotics but to clearly plant our flag as a core national and industry participant in the Artemis era,” Greenley said.
Lunar Gateway is set to begin construction no earlier than 2025, according to NASA.
Science
Astronomers discover Milky Way's heaviest known black hole – Xinhua
JERUSALEM, April 16 (Xinhua) — Astronomers have found BH3 is by far the heaviest known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, 33 times the mass of the Sun.
An international research team found the black hole when looking into the latest data group recorded in the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, Israel’s Tel Aviv University (TAU) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The black hole is located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, said TAU, whose researchers participated in the study of the newly discovered binary system.
In binary systems, a visible star can be found orbiting a massive but unseen companion, indicating the latter is a black hole.
Binaries have revealed around 50 suspected or confirmed stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way, but scientists think there may be as many as 100 million in our galaxy alone, according to NASA.
Stellar-mass black holes are formed when a star runs out of its nuclear combustion fuel and collapses.
The massive black hole BH3 was detailed in the open-access journal Astronomy & Astrophysics for further study.
Science
'Almost hit my son' – Space junk crashes through Florida home – BBC.com
“It almost hit my son” – three years ago the International Space Station threw out refuse into space, expecting it to undergo “a natural re-entry”.
But a heavy piece of debris crashed through a home in Naples, Florida, narrowly missing the householder’s son.
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