Whereas SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are enabling web entry and cellphone communications across the globe, they’re additionally posing a risk to radio astronomy, a brand new examine suggests.

In some wavelength bands, unintended leakage of electromagnetic radiation from the newest era of the satellites is greater than 30 instances brighter than emissions from earlier variations, Cees Bassa, a radio astronomer on the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in Dwingeloo and his colleagues report September 18 in Astronomy & Astrophysics. As a result of the newest era of Starlink satellites will orbit as many as 100 kilometers decrease than earlier satellites, they’ll appear even brighter to ground-based telescopes. General, their brightness may simply masks observations of dimmer objects like distant galaxies or stars.

Radio telescopes, reasonably than gathering seen mild, accumulate lower-energy waves from sources that emit radiation at longer wavelengths. Bassa and his staff used six radio telescopes at an observatory close to Exloo, Netherlands, to characterize the emissions from Starlink satellites throughout two hourlong classes in July. Though the satellites handed by means of the telescopes’ discipline of view for between solely 12 and 40 seconds, they have been very shiny: In contrast with the faintest astronomical sources that may be noticed by these telescopes, Starlink satellites are about 10 million instances brighter, Bassa and his staff famous.

And the issue will possible worsen: SpaceX is launching about 40 second-generation Starlink satellites every week, the researchers observe, with greater than 6,000 already on the market (SN: 3/3/23). Bassa and his colleagues have discovered that different corporations’ satellites are detectable by radio telescopes too, they usually’re working to measure these emissions as effectively.

Bassa and his colleagues hope that their persevering with observations will spur the builders of such satellites to revamp their tools the place attainable to cut back unintended radio emissions.