• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Satellite Launched Last Year Becomes One Of The Brightest Things In The Sky

October 3, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Back in 2022, AST Space Mobile launched BlueWalker 3, a new prototype of telecommunication satellite that can send satellite internet directly to regular mobile phones with no modification to their hardware. It is made by an enormous antenna of 64 square meters (693 square feet). This is the largest commercial antenna ever deployed in low Earth orbit. So it is not surprising that this satellite appears to be one of the brightest objects in the sky, according to a new study.

Astronomers measure the brightness of an object using a quantity called magnitude. The brighter the object, the smaller the number, even going into negative numbers. The Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Sirius all have negative magnitudes. A star like Vega has a magnitude around 0. Polaris, the North Star, has a magnitude around two. That’s usually the limit of stars we can see in a city. In a dark sky region, we can see objects all the way down to around magnitude six.

Advertisement

It depends on the darkness of the sky and where you are on Earth, but a few thousand stars are visible to the naked eye. BlueWalker 3 is not naturally bright, what we see is the light from the Sun reflected back to Earth. At the right angle, it reached a magnitude of 0.4. That is in the top-15 brightest objects in the sky. That’s brighter than Betelgeuse or Saturn.

“BlueWalker 3 is a big shift in the constellation satellite issue and should give us all reason to pause,” said Piero Benvenuti, Director of the International Astronomical Union’s Center for the Protection of the Sky (IAU CPS), said last November in a statement. 

And it is not just the satellite itself. Even its Launch Vehicle Adapter was extremely bright, four times brighter than the guidelines from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for objects. Since SpaceX began building its mega-constellation, with satellites way brighter than the guidelines, streaks have begun appearing in cosmic observations. 

The dramatic increase in number of satellites is contributing to light pollution. And the feelings related to the lack of access to a true night sky have even got their own word: noctalgia. 

Advertisement

And it is not just visual. Transmitting phone signals from space also impacts radio astronomy and the ability to use radio dishes to study distant galaxies or monitor dangerous asteroids. This could be a major problem for existing and even upcoming facilities like the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO).

“Astronomers build radio telescopes as far away as possible from human activity, looking for places on the planet where there is limited or no cell phone coverage. Frequencies allocated to cell phones are already challenging to observe even in radio quiet zones we have created for our facilities. New satellites such as BlueWalker 3 have the potential to worsen this situation and compromise our ability to do science if not properly mitigated,” said SKAO Director-General Philip Diamond. 

“This is a key reason why the SKAO is deeply involved in the IAU CPS and promoting the equitable and sustainable use of space.”

The author of the new study, Sangeetha Nandakumar, and her team argue that before satellite companies launch crafts into space, they ought to work to reduce the impact they will have on the night sky and astronomy.  AST Space Mobile is planning to launch 90 more of these satellites.

Advertisement

“Impact assessments for satellite operators prior to launch could help ensure that the impact of their satellites on the space and Earth environments is critically evaluated,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

“We encourage the implementation of such studies as part of launching authorization processes.”

The research is published in the journal Nature.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Paris ramps up security as jihadist attacks trial starts
  2. Cricket-‘Western bloc’ has let Pakistan down, board chief says
  3. Analysis-Diverse boards to pick the next Boston and Dallas Fed bank chiefs
  4. Ancient Bison Found In Permafrost Is So Well Preserved Scientists Want To Clone It

Source Link: Satellite Launched Last Year Becomes One Of The Brightest Things In The Sky

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Elon Musk Has Announced His Bombastic Plan To Get Humans To Mars
  • China Unveils World’s Largest Offshore Wind Turbine With Hub Height Of 185 Meters
  • Oldest Fingerprint, AI Decoding Wolf Language, And Injecting Life On Other Worlds?
  • “There Are Glimmers Of Hope”: Search For One Of The World’s Most Endangered Pigeons Just Scored A Big Win
  • Earth Has A 1-In-100,000 Chance Of Being Ejected From The Solar System Due To A Passing Star
  • “Necrobotics” Turns Dead Spider Corpses Into Biohybrid Robots
  • Why Even Traveling Close To The Speed Of Light Is So Hard
  • Peer Into The Universe’s Distant Past Thanks To JWST’s Longest-Exposure Photo Yet
  • First Evidence For Chubby Cheeks In Dinosaurs Challenges Our Understanding Of How They Chewed
  • The 2021 “Heat Dome” Killed Her Mother. Now, She’s Suing The Oil Companies Responsible
  • Two Of The Most Destructive Termites Got It On, Sparking Hybrid Threat In Florida
  • The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: A Story Of Anxiety And Hysteria In America’s Heartland
  • Tourists Swimming With Orcas In Mexico As Tour Guides Exploit Legal Loopholes
  • Hells Canyon, The Deepest River Gorge In The US, Was Created Incredibly Recently
  • It’s The Perfect Time Of Year To See Noctilucent Clouds In The Twilight Skies
  • Hawaiian Volcanoes Have Erupted With Gold That Came From Earth’s Core
  • Why Do Some Australian Beaches Have Vinegar Stations?
  • 2-Year-Old Who “Loves A Challenge” Becomes Youngest Ever Member Of Mensa
  • How Bioacoustics Could Decode Howls And Give Us “A Peek Into The Language Of Wolves”
  • Ancient Inca Used A Mysterious String “Writing” System – And We’re Starting To Understand What It Said
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version