Elon Musk's satellites 'blocking' view of the universe | BBC News

Radio waves from Elon Musk’s growing network of satellites are blocking scientists’ ability to peer into the universe, according to researchers in the Netherlands.
The new generation of Starlink satellites, which provide fast internet around the world, are interfering more with radio telescopes than earlier versions, they say.
The thousands of orbiting satellites are “blinding” radio telescopes and may be hindering astronomical research, according to Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON).
SpaceX, which owns Starlink, has not replied to a request from BBC News for comment.

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[@jamroast]

They knew this was happening years ago.

[@user-ry6uf5dp1l]

😂😂it is an excuse for them to sue scum Elon banks 🏦

[@davids1inwestholl45]

as far back as 1978, NASA scientists explained what could happen worst case scenario (Kessler Effect).

[@user-ry6uf5dp1l]

@@davids1inwestholl45 here comes fears 🚨

[@spagooter1807]

I actually think that the danger is not permanently blocking our view it’s only temporary. It stands to reason those spacex satellites are on orbit somewhere around earth right? So if you push the satellite into a higher earth orbit than the satellites it won’t be blocked. I don’t think we should be lambasting the person trying to do something about space travel but asking why govts are unwilling to push out space telescopes out further they should have a bigger budget. I don’t see how this is a situation humanity can’t do some simply already proven engineering to get out of. Am I missing something here because the solution seems to just be pushing the space telescopes out farther it’s not like they will lose comms we had it on the moon. If it is permanent I hate this but logic dictates the solution is just getting off our asses and pushing those telescopes into high orbit by launching a module to do that, the people designing this should have accounted for that in design already. Maybe if we weren’t trying to start ww3 we could fund NASA instead but capitalism means he’s the only one with the budget to make things happen and I think this is a avoidable problem if not a short term annoyance. They will probably always now be blocking earth space telescopes view but frankly satellite telescopes see better and we should just launch more of those as countries take a risk.

[@user-ry6uf5dp1l]

@@spagooter1807 spaceX are speeding American 🇺🇸 rocket launches 🚀 to space station Petty economy India in space launch Russia china ect ect

[@chrisbenson6753]

The number of people who put blind faith in a wealthy capitalist but are unwilling to listen to scientists who study the problem and freely share their research and technology is baffling.

[@010timeboy27]

Was 'wealthy capitalist' supposed to be pejorative? 😂What makes him more capitalist than you

[@charzemc]

Freely?? Who do you think pays scientists? Thats right, companies pay scientists to confirm their own opinion. Wake up honey.

[@klipk7296]

@@010timeboy27 I think they were just emphasizing that he didn't get to his position through education or scientific expertise

[@derekscanlan4641]

@@010timeboy27 if you can't answer that question for yourself, it's you that has the real problem. ...tho without a question mark, who knows what you actually meant?

[@010timeboy27]

@@derekscanlan4641 The fact that you enjoy being an online grammar nazi tells me all I need to know. Won't waste my time

[@saronbrandao]

Lex Luthor, is that you?

[@dominothealphaandomega5512]

Honestly won’t be surprised if we hear about him discovering a Green rock in a meteor In the next couple of Years, bro is One Bad Hair Day away from harassing a Space Immigrant

[@Abominatrix650]

He wishes. Bezos is the closest one to Superman's baldest hater

[@dannyarcher6370]

That's Jeff Bezos. Are you blind?

[@chrisbenson6753]

I always thought he was closer to the penguin.

[@TheSugarholicProject]

This is super personal to me, as space news has always been my shelter of optimism. How ironic, the billionaire crowning himself as the "pioneer" of human space exploration is posing the greatest threat to actual scientific progress.

[@chas77]

Elon and Space X are out pacing NASA to Mars and beyond. The next big Space news you hear will likely have Elon Musk involved.

[@theJACKATIC]

Be optimistic then, more satellites in MEO above these ones can have telescopes. Problem solved.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

We should block Elon Musk’s “view” of oxygenated environments.

[@joebloggs1317]

Wants the human race to be multi planetary but blocks out the view of where to go...... The irony

[@user-rr2ox4jy7g]

"Entire field of radio astronomy" she said, so its Radio, its in the name

[@50sense50]

Nothing ironic at all I bet you use tampons

[@davids1inwestholl45]

@@user-rr2ox4jy7g Optical is already effected. There are 2 times a day that almost each optical satellite (especially in LEO & MEO) cannot function b/c the sun's light shines off of EM's satellites. Even if the human eye cannot see it, the telescopes are sensitive to see white streaks (dozens, hundreds) across their images. He's not even half way to his 14,000 estimate. We have optical & radar satellites that scan the skies every night for near earth objects (NEO) that may pass close enough to earth, it might require intervention. Google Kessler syndrome (a NASA study by Don Kessler).

[@CHMichael]

​@@user-rr2ox4jy7gthat entire comment section is saturated with ignorant comments

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@paulbunyan9436]

The guy is larger than life, and is quickly becoming the ultimate Big Brother.

[@scootergrant8683]

There have been other billionaires in the past and continue to be in the present who wield such influence comparable to his. Except Elon is much more public about his work compared to others. There's just as much concern elsewhere.

[@50sense50]

Your surname is a foot complaint

[@davids1inwestholl45]

I think that is too benign a term. He's made the US completely dependent on HIM to access space, essentially. One man. He'll have a world-wide internet service that can handle a billion customers. He wants to build the biggest, fastest supercomputer on earth. He wants his own AI. One man. He's paying off federal, state & local officials as fast as they can grab his fist full of dollars. One man. He wants to be Trump's consultant on re-designing & downsizing the gov't by firing all selective service (non-political) employees. One man controls the worlds largest messenger app service, and he regularly tells his engineers to tweak his algos the way he wants it to make him always look good. One Man.

[@CHMichael]

You think he has time to listen in. That's what the NSA is doing

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@MrLibye]

another dilemma to take elon down

[@NoExpertHere]

But this complaint makes sense

[@arthurgoonie4596]

​@NoExpertHere no it really doesnt do you have any idea how much trash is in orbit and guess who put it there it was musk

[@ec6052]

*Rich douche interferes with scientific research for profit Unemployed oxygen thief with daddy issues, still living at home - "IT`S A CONSPIRACY TO HURT MY DADD.... ERR.... ELON"

[@SarsaparillaJANE]

Why are people in the comments defending the richest man in the world, who owns his own communication platform, as though he is oppressed?

[@MrWombatty]

The sooner Musk is rocketed off to Mars, the better!

[@geoffbirchall7552]

He’s just another globalist puppet pushing their agenda!

[@davidbayliss3789]

I'm just typing extemporaneously and maybe confused and conflated about things - I often am lol. And I'm not sure which specific comments you're referring to so I might not even disagree with you lol. I'm not sure who's done more for switching the world over to EV's than Musk ... and I felt "oppressed" as a non-driver since the 80's by all the pollution from internal combustion engines. I'm not sure who's done more to make space more "affordable" (with the promise of it becoming much more affordable) than Musk which helps science and economies. Etc. I'm not keen on Musk at all - the dangerous bull shit he keeps broadcasting from his exulted pulpit. But I try not to let that diminish my view of his achievements. And I think they are down to him ... not just a matter of timing and the people working for him. His ruthless dictatorial "drive" made things happen I think. My point is, I don't think it's about "Musk" being "oppressed". As a man. Who might, now, be as mad as some Roman Emperors I think he models himself after. It's about ideas and technological - and eventually in astronomical terms, scientific advancement being "oppressed" by stagnation. A lot of people tried to prevent Musk making space flight cheaper and from helping to oust the fossil fuel industry (over all - excepting using things like gas generators for AI now, for the time being). He's not just a 2D "Rich" (and seemingly very silly/repugnant/seemingly-racist) entitled man who probably wants to own the planet and everyone on it. I find him scary! As a long-term strategy, I don't think mega constellations of LEO satellites like Starlink have many decades of commercial relevance to them. I think there's just too much risk/liability of having so much stuff in LEO. As a system it seems quite fragile to me. Even if they become more autonomous, they'd need much higher mobility than they have now in order to avoid future collisions under cascade-type conditions and so on and I don't think they'll all be nuclear powered any time soon. Hopefully they'll become smaller in time and be less of an optical bother, but until they become less relevant as a cluster I think they're going to be a radio problem. I think eventually as labour becomes cheaper in some industries with AI, and we have more distributed but connected renewables, we'll probably have improved fibre optics as their bandwidth improves and on-chip optical processing becomes cheaper and so on, and our wireless connectivity will hopefully become narrower/shorter-distance/cleaner (less leakage) "end points" over time rather than this every-phone getting satellite connectivity tendency. I think priorities will change. But on the flip side, I don't think Earth based Radio Astronomy can simply, in an entitled way, "expect" to be relevant all the time either. There was a time before Earth based radio astronomy. Things change. There will likely be a time after Earth based Radio astronomy. Nothing's sacred. I realised over a year ago my job as a programmer will soon be superseded by AI. I don't have a problem with it. I don't feel oppressed by that! I see it as a "good" thing! I will mourn the loss of lost talent and opportunities for radio astronomy ... it will be a brief, relative radio "dark age". Stories will be lost or never said. Signals missed. Science forgotten. Perspectives and individuality defocused. I hope there will be opportunities for radio astronomy in the future. I think current radio astronomers, should lobby whoever / persuade whoever to force a contractual obligation from large LEO satellite cluster operators to pay for / support the space-related development costs, and placement of radio observatories in appropriate places in Space ... e.g. dark side of the moon comes to mind ... places in shadow etc. There's going to be a period of decline, probably. :( But that seems like a casualty of "progress" to me. The best thing people can do I think, is work toward a better/brighter future and capitalise on "progress" rather than fight it. Try to minimise the disruptive period. Shorten it. Make sure there's an upside for them. Don't just whinge about it but try to make it happen. Keep the science of Radio Astronomy alive. I am sometimes confused by what people are really worried about. Are they really worried about the science? Or are they just worried about their jobs / personal-interests? Business as usual? To me, it seems plain, that cheaper access to space ought to herald a golden age of radio astronomy! Give Space X an opportunity rather than a headache. Let them look "good" lol, but just make sure they pay for it.

[@Johnny_Caruthers]

Oh but it was all fine and dandy when Twitter was a vv0ke cesspool

[@omsi-fanmark]

Please explain the relationship between "being a rich CEO or company owner" and "operating a modern satellite commications network". Yeah, there's none! It's just bashing someone you don't like. Do you think other companies operating satelllites are poor guys? Other companies have similar plans to set up satellite constellations in very low orbits (because it has huge advantages compared to high geostationary orbits) and they have to have a lot of money, too, or they will fail. This already happened. Next in line, but late, is Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Do you like him more? While Musk sometimes exhibits questionable behavior and opinions, he has founded several successful companies, most of them did not have a guaranteed sucess. The only thing a notices about Bezos is that he is arrogant and talks about a lot about his plans, but hasn't accomplished anything regarding orbital rocketry in many years so far, although Blue Origin was founded one year before SpaceX. Hmm...!?

[@mikolajwojnicki2169]

The guest did a good job at explaining

[@gregknipe8772]

time to sue Elon into consciousness.

[@jimcourt9164]

Errrrr it’s a US Government Contract

[@SPACETVnet]

@@jimcourt9164 Hey stop misleading people with these comments.

[@mike4769]

You can't sue simply because you are jealous

[@CHMichael]

You sound just like our administration.... and the Chinese ccp and putin . They too say things like this about people that they disagree with.

[@CHMichael]

​@mike4769 he's not jealous. He doesn't agree with what elon is saying. ... and ofcause that's his solution. That's the new American.

[@pauljansen1137]

No one man should be able to have such immense power over everyone else.....ever!!!

[@chrisj9825]

Says who, you? Tossa

[@trs4u]

It's not going to be just "one man". Starlink paying the bills to develop the best space trucking fleet ever while circumventing other countries' control over access to information won't going unnoticed. We can expect to see several competing systems in the next 10 years, I expect.

[@gnihtemos69]

cope

[@obsidianjane4413]

@@trs4u lol. No.

[@user-rr2ox4jy7g]

go and vote against it LUL

[@robertwomack3419]

You can't own space!

[@obsidianjane4413]

Thats okay. He'll sell them a space telescope and the ride above his space trash. Problem + solution = Profit!

[@davids1inwestholl45]

the JWST cost $10 Billion (USD). It was estimated to cost $1Billion (NASA). It was estimated to launch in 2007. It launched Christmas day, 2021. Google the Kessler Syndrome or Kessler effect. It explains how we could lose all access to manned exploration above 100,000 feet. No Moon, no Mars, no Space Station, no manned launch into or pass thru orbit. This can last decades, perhaps even centuries. There are 7,000 to 10,000 (working/non-working/parked) stationary satellites (22,000 miles) that will never 'fall to Earth'. So from 65 miles to 22,000 miles, there can be a cloud of debris in orbit too dense to pass through or remain in orbit without getting hit.

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@BPJJohn]

Thats not Freedom that's Tyranny.

[@obsidianjane4413]

@@Djrodw You probably just need a shower.

[@vice.nor.virtue]

i wish more scientists were as glamourous as her. She looks like shes like a scientist from a 007 film

[@stevenvitali7404]

Octopussy

[@dwaynestomp5462]

I wanna hear her talk dirty

[@otakunthevegan4206]

It's no wonder so many women become lesbians these days with men like you on the market.

[@ghostwalk2446]

"She" was born a man, do you feel 10 lbs gayer now? Lmao

[@MrBillBronx]

The earrings are preposterous.

[@lastChang]

Elon Musk needs to register as a *foreign agent* (FARA) for the work he performed at the behest of the Chinese 🇨🇳 government: - He helped China to export forced labor, made in China electric cars to other countries. - He complained all the time, but always praised the Chinese regime. - He advocated for AI slowdown so that China could catch up. - He blocked his Starshield satelite service in Taiwan. - He repeated Chinese lies of the century about independent Taiwan country as a "province of China."

[@fillyourcoffers1281]

- China has the largest source of rare metals needed to make electric cars plus the talent to do so and the biggest electric car market, obvious place to build them and ship them out until he has a factory in each region. - When China is buying and making your product you want the country on ur side...duh - He advocated AI slow down as a direct aim at OPENAI a company he founded and it gave him time to get his own AI company running. Nothing to do with China - So which country will support his companies more Taiwan or China?? If ur given the choice u would do the same, dont bite the hand that feeds you. Dude you have to realise hes playing a political game with China and cant afford to be against China. You talk about Elon but how many countries are influenced by China to avoid taiwan products and trade. WAKE up man

[@AhmetTekin101]

​@@fillyourcoffers1281Both are false!

[@davids1inwestholl45]

He's becoming an 'untouchable'. He's the only de facto access into earth orbit the US has.

[@youtubehero5462]

He's also helping Russia in Ukraine. I can't see him as anything more than anti-American foreign asset

[@AhmetTekin101]

​@@DjrodwCan you debunk it, you nobrain?

[@achd73]

elon musk is mentally insane

[@MrWombatty]

The sooner Musk is rocketed off to Mars, the better!

[@god_is_a_dog]

Elon Musk trying not to ruin something: impossible

[@davids1inwestholl45]

He sure did a great job ruining Twitter. Revenues down 84% since he took over. He uses it as a personal fiefdom. It sounds ruined to me.

[@PatrickByrne-e5v]

He's like Trump. A weird silver spoon bigoted grifter that never really grew up. If he didnt have insanely rich parents he'd be selling fake watches in times square cussin out old ladies

[@sproutickler]

@@davids1inwestholl45 oh no he let people who dont agree with you speak and your upset about it. what a shame

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@sproutickler because you agree with unlimited right wing hate speech. Got it.

[@davids1inwestholl45]

@@sproutickler I think you mean "you're upset", because I don't own upset. How does "your upset" work with you? Anyway, I RARELY ever use twitter. He's manipulated it so everyone gets almost every message he sends. Most negative msgs to him get buried so he never sees them. And yes, when I see the most powerful, wealthy private citizen in the world spew trump talking points word-for-word, who promises $45M per mo in dark money (untraceable) 'campaign donations', & then trump turns around & announces EM will be one of his top advisors, & he'll want EM to eliminate the 2.5 Million selective service employees (non-political employees) & replace them w/ political hacks, I mean hires, like what he bragged to trump when his auto workers wanted to unionize or else they'd strike. He fired them all. Their conversation was on a taped recording of the call. Trump said he wants to clean out the FBI, the IRS, the DoJ, the DoD, and appoint only MAGA faithful. Trump wrote this past week he wants EM to recommend directors for NIH, CDC, FDA. Medicare/Medicaid directors, their IG. EM has become the only company that can transport anything the US requires into space. That's called an unregulated monopoly. He's only accountable to no one but the FAA...for flight permits! This is not how a democratic republic is supposed to run. But I have to wonder, if you were a shareholder in X, & it lost 84% of its revenue, & EM's response was (on national TV), "Go fuck yourselves...Go fuck yourselves...Go...fuck...your...selves." Does that sound stable & steady enough to be the trump whisperer to your future president?? Really?

[@davidwood4374]

Keep free speech alive!

[@gn2540]

This is a low-key hit piece on one of the most important men in history.

[@Rick-xp5sy]

He’s doing it on purpose, he doesn’t want us to see what’s coming!🤣

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@archdruid5468]

It was rare just 20 years ago to see a satellight when you looked up. Now I see one within seconds usually

[@chrisbenson6753]

About bloody well time mainstream media starts talking about this

[@BernieForMayor]

How long before Musk tweets that the earth is flat? I bet less than 6 months.

[@eddyr1041]

Unlikely❤😅

[@antoniopiscopo6258]

This actor musk on the world stage, knows the earth is flat, he don't tell you this, he's a freemason, the whole world is run by freemasonry, they own this puppet, the people who print money have the most, the bankers, it's s shame that the world is occupied by most people with no brain and no common sense. we all live under a dome, a firmament, and in case you want more, ask freemasonic Google what is the firmament, they even tell you. The world is one big stage of actors and liars, the news is all lies, that's how you know this character musk, through the screen

[@digitaldobbie]

Does that mean we won’t be able to see Santa clause flying in the sky too?

[@hael8680]

But but but humanity NEEDS access to fast social media 😂

[@bingeltube]

BBC this is stinking old news! Such complaints were already raised in the 20th century! Why only Musk satellittes?

[@Garth-e3b]

In the 20th century, they didn't have the starlink up and running.

[@bingeltube]

@@Garth-e3b I strongly suggest you read up on commercial satellite history covering the second half of last century. Elon Musk is not the first!

[@t9j6c6j51]

On the plus side, my internet connection has never been better. No one’s complaining about that are they.

[@publics.public]

It's crap. wtf are you on about?

[@amgry5461]

And here I thought it was light and fuel pollution

[@TheEret]

Observatories had to be built away from cities as electric lighting became more popular. I think that people would consider Satellite internet/connectivity more helpful in everyday life that it would increasingly force the observatories of the future to be built in a way to avoid this radio and physical interference. This would probably mean more space-based telescopes, however, observatories in space or on the moon/other planets will never be able to be as big/effective as the ones we can build down here on earth.

[@ilisati]

But spacex starship can send huge telescopes out into space past the satellite 🛰

[@1977ivanhoe]

Positive news about SpaceX (no mention of Elon) Negative news involving SpaceX ( there goes Elon featuring in the title heading)

[@EKspeed]

Because Elon has aligned with trump and the BBC is for Harris so they will do anything they can to make him look bad

[@Competitive_Antagonist]

Wahhh!🍼

[@Competitive_Antagonist]

Quit being mean to Daddy Musk!

[@johndavies4801]

Hes a scumbag spending daddys blood money.

[@derekscanlan4641]

...and so? Maybe it's just about your hurt feelings?

[@muzenkaibr2086]

I am disappointed with Elon Musk. Instead of using his power to help those in need, he is supporting political struggles in other countries. He has the money and power to make peace happen, but he is ignoring it.

[@geoms6263]

He bought Twitter so he could train his AI without being interrupted.

[@MrWombatty]

The sooner Musk is rocketed off to Mars, the better!

[@clevergirl4457]

yeah it's bad, but this not an issue only to do with Starlink. With the Department of Defence's Starshield, China, Jeff's Bezos' Amazon Kuiper, and even Russia looking to put up 1000s of sats, this is only going to get worse. And it's also not like these Starlinks are doing nothing with 3 million users and growing who depend on it for connectivity. The whole industry needs to do better to reduce the amount of unintended radio emissions

[@Ivan-fs7go]

That skyscraper next to my house ruined my view long before Elon got into the space

[@eddyr1041]

Without radioastronomi, we never got satellite to start with😅

[@Alarik52]

Signal pollution is what she's describing.

[@Cyclist-o6e]

Not content with just ruining everything he touches on planet earth

[@iGgvv]

Exactly like ABCD++ group., everything they touch turns to shit

[@vincentmcbride6210]

Well if Space x wasnt doing it then someone else would be, like the chinese or some other company.

[@marcinhibner9507]

It's a wonderful problem that will create newer out past those satellites equipment that is technically outdated and needs to be placed in space to get clearer space reach. let me you love my comment :)

[@MattTerrell]

My Internet speed is far more important !

[@benjamindover4337]

But I can't see the universe now

[@chasehicks7465]

Alot of other countries are going to do this as well ..

[@lastrival1315]

The orbit that Elon's satellites which measure less than 5 metres follow covers an area more than the entire ocean and continents cover on earth, yet people complain about space pollution lol .

[@benbarberian1701]

See that's why you didn't graduate from Highschool 😢, shame you haven't learned to shut up and actually think and understand what your peers are saying and try to understand that obviously they're true.

[@lastrival1315]

@@benbarberian1701 look up at the sky and reply

[@knockedoutloaded]

So when he's rescuing stranded astronauts the BBC never mentions his name once. Now it's Elon this, Elon that. Anyone would think the BBC has an agenda 😂

[@chrisbenson6753]

Two things can be true. SpaceX can help space science and also damage it.

[@publics.public]

OR enough people are talking about the megalomaniac?

[@rabunbike]

No. This has been an issue for a number of years with low orbit satellites. The problem is the volume is growing and thus the problem is getting larger. So no it's just an existing problem that is getting worse with time for radio astronomy.

[@jakekisiel7399]

I have Starlink internet and they’ll have to kill me to take it away. That’s how much I love it.

[@MusclesNOTtattoos]

Bleating about Elon Musk has become an obsession for the woke left.

[@davewilson9738]

Where is James Bond? This isn't a movie with Roger Moore or Sean Connery? He is a real villain?

[@1ndragunawan]

If you're doing a positive news on SpaceX without mentioning Elon Musk, then you should also do the negative news on SpaceX without mentioning Elon Musk.

[@Raptorman0909]

Why is it necessary to mention Elon Musk at all?

[@1ndragunawan]

@@Raptorman0909 you should ask the BBC, they're the one having non consistent reporting.

[@edwinplants6317]

Because he's responsible

[@BartekJuszczak]

The starship will allow them to send telescopes of sizes never heard of before at costs so low astronomers will wonder how they ever lived before this

[@davids1inwestholl45]

In 1990, the JWST was estimated to cost $1Billion, and it would launch by 2007. Building started in 1996. It ended up costing $10 Billion, & launched Christmas day, 2021. Will HE pay for the $20B the next one could cost, since his stuff will be ruining the 10's of Billions these earth bound satellites cost (some aren't even finished yet)?

[@BartekJuszczak]

@@davids1inwestholl45 yes you are right! I love the BBC and truth, always the best reporting

[@chrisbenson6753]

Out of curiosity, how big do you think radio telescopes are?

[@BartekJuszczak]

​@@chrisbenson6753 Around 100m for most, matching the Orion space radio telescopes at "at least 100m folded out", and those were sent with cave men rockets. Unfortunately they're pointed at the earth. Aside from that I am seeing that space based telescopes have other advantages like not having to hold their own weight eliminating most of the material. And ability to position them at arbitrary distances from each other in any configuration to make any size and characteristic virtual combined telescope. That's what's been achieved so far, The future may also hold space telescopes constructed in space or on the moon that self propel upwards, with no size limits. There's absolutely no way in which enormous advancements in space technology won't allow us to study space far far better

[@davids1inwestholl45]

​@@chrisbenson6753 Well, that depends. The Atacama Desert has the ALMA Observatory w/ 66 independent dishes that can fan out to a max of 16k, or tight, at 150m between. South Africa has the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) which is 9,000m^2 or 97,000sq.ft., 64 dishes from MeerKAT, one of the precursors to SKA. One of the most advanced radio telescopes in the ATNF in Australia. Eventually, soon, the S.Africa SKA will be 197 dishes and Australia CSIRO w/ 130,000 'christmas tree' antennas will be merged & operated out of Australia. This collab will be the largest, most advanced collection of radio telescopes. I'm wondering if it's a trick question & you want the World-wide Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) from 2017? That's technically the biggest. Regardless, what I was referring to was the optical telescopes, such as ESO's VLT, on Cerro Paranal. It cost 300 million Euros in the 90's. Today, it would cost +500 billion euros (w/ inflation). I've seen images w/ dozens & dozens of diagonal lines across their images. Another is the ELT & we'll be lucky if it's built for at least 2 billion Euro & completed by 2028 (or '29, but for sure, '30). I'm even worried about the LSST (Vera Rubin Observatory) to open end of 2025. I can't find the actual budget. It's half a billion here, $57 million there. It's not transparent. But what future will it have w/ 30,000 to 40,000...even 50K satellites in orbit? As I mentioned in my post, in 1 month, there were 55 times where human intervention was required to "re-arrange orbital paths" (avoid possible collisions). And each 'move' increases the odds of having to make future adjustments b/c of the earlier moves. This unregulated, "1st come, grabs all they can" approach ain't gonna work! Every decade they re-evaluate the Kessler modeling, & each decade they predict sooner than the last review, & they find more stuff than they thought was up there. Space-faring countries are going to panic from FOMO, & start hurling what they can up there. What if an unstoppable cascade occurs? It will be back to the 1940's to 1950's tech. No more manned flight, no LEO, MEO, even GEO could be lost for decades...even centuries. No Moon, no Mars trips. No human spaceflight. And imagine the economic stone-age the world will have. Weather & hurricane forecasting. World banking. I gotta go to bed.

[@TaraBodhi1]

Hopefully there's no near earth asteroids on course.

[@entropybentwhistle]

Guy is even becoming a PITA retroactively.

[@fern]

How was this allowed? To cover our Earth unnecessarily with all that junk when we're doing just fine with land tech.

Elon quickly rising to be the most hated man on the world

[@Terry-g9j]

No that's Kier Starmer

@@Terry-g9j didnt even know who this was, had no idea the indian dude was replaced

[@Terry-g9j]

He makes the Indian Guy look like Mother Teresa

[@GOzoRAW]

The radio emissions aren’t just bad for the science project but possibly for the human body too…?

[@LivingroomTV-me9oz]

Oh, I’m sure a South African billionaire is going to care deeply about how you NASA nerds feel…he’s soooo empathic.😂

[@dwaynestomp5462]

They're keeping the aliens from spying on us!

[@Wayne-qp6lj]

Rubbish!

[@Robert2024H]

Switch mode power supplies took out short wave radio for many, and now their influence spread

[@adammutimer3952]

If it's not spacex it would be some other company... So rather than build new land based radio telescopes... put radio telescopes in space???

[@ricky_pigeon]

Time to go to space, already can't stand everyone's constant misery and moaning even though we have it easier than anyone's ever had it before us.

[@publics.public]

Stop moainng about the moaning then?

[@MrWombatty]

The sooner Musk is rocketed off to Mars, the better!

[@ricky_pigeon]

@@publics.public no

[@th4n4t58]

I'd rather have technology up there than go back to stone age. 🤷

[@P.E.O.ll-RhodesScholarGraduate]

✌️🤣♟️IBM owner/Top Secret engineer told NASA I ain't building that! Rocket ships are a joke, literally. 🙄

[@muhammaduddin9268]

Send them to Mars.

[@MrWombatty]

The sooner Musk is rocketed off to Mars, the better!

[@jacoburban2757]

And it also just ruins the night sky for amateur astronomers or people who enjoy watching the night sky

[@mikeadams3722]

Am I the only one distracted by that gorgeous Italian accent?

[@bwise609]

Air shouldn't be free for him he needs taxed out of my life

[@ryancolley2975]

Support trump and the few corrupt media starts attacking him

[@XX-166]

Convicted felons and sexual predators don’t block satellite signals but he is ELONS new bottom boy after Putin and North Korea.

[@outdoorsy01]

Yep. We tried enjoying the countriside and the stars. Far too many satelites it alarming!!

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@outdoorsy01]

@@Djrodw nah. That's you're breath you idiot. Not everything has to be political. Go and bot somewhere else you tool

[@rabunbike]

@@Djrodw I have no beef with you but you keep posting the same comment over and over again a bit lit a dumb bot.

[@lingth]

So Elon Musk blocks the view but not the GPS ones or the weather ones or the Bei Dou ones..

[@chrisbenson6753]

It’s a matter of quantity.

[@MrWombatty]

Those satellites you mention are further away earth in higher orbits, with much shielded electronics! Also, Star-link satellites' electronics will fail much earlier, & they'll drop out of orbit much sooner!

[@Krasoulass]

He could be doing this on purpose indeed. Selling internet services around the globe and at the same time making ground telescopes useless. Countries and organisations should pay him to send telescopes in space now for space observation. Nice plan, right?

[@rklammer]

Unfortuently Satellites are more important to us on earth day to day than looking at distance stars so I think it's on the scientific community to work around them. About time we had telescopes all over the moon tbh.

[@greenleaves9527]

All these satellites are messing with our brains

[@nuqwestr]

Observation from earth is problematic on many fronts, the future is moonbase observation, we should have been there already.

[@BPJJohn]

Elon Musk will charge you for an unobstucted view of the Universe.

[@tmcbride9435]

it's called emissions and immunities. They could have ensured that shiz had to meet certain standards before they deployed it. But, its space and they rushed it.

[@achd73]

elon musk stands for his own dogma of hypocrisy

[@ghostwalk2446]

Been predicting this for decades, we need limits on how many satellites people can launch into orbit, obviously "unlimited satellites" would be disastrous eventually

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@ghostwalk2446]

@@Djrodw Well clearly your smell sensors are off, that was common sense, nothing political lol

[@rabunbike]

At some point in the future it will be extremely difficult to launch new satellites into orbit without collisions. This is a also the case for human space flight. So, no its not just a theoretical issue. Do a search on "space debris" to get an idea the volume of high speed junk spinning around the globe. This is not an Elon only issue. Starlink is low orbit and most space junk is far higher.

[@nikobellic570]

Elon musk blocking human scientific progress

[@ahr355]

The scientific community JUST realized this was going to be an issue? Other countries are doing their own version of starlink constellations . How did this not occur to some of the smartest scientists in the world ? Good grief! 😂

[@adampoultney8737]

It’s been known for years………

[@MegaFieldy1]

it's been a big concern since elon musk said he was going to put thousands of satellites into low earth orbit. you can search and find all the comments about it. you just saw this today, doesn't mean it's an issue now and they couldn't predict it.

[@lesliespeaker668]

They've been warning about this right from the beginning. It goes to show how weak the political lobby of astronomy is.

[@cacojo15]

I have hear of this at least 5 years ago if not more. They did not JUST realized that now.

[@SPACETVnet]

No, you just heard about it.

[@PSA78]

What I like about James Bond is that it's fictional, this is getting too real and I think it's time for Elon to take his white cat and go back to South Africa.

[@Pidxr]

More space telescopes please

[@TinaBUTCHER-ph1ph]

Nothing that furthers humanity has ever come from Musk, nothing

[@barnem108]

they could aproach him and request that he puts radio telescopes in space at a higher orbit then the starlink satalites to compensate at his cost of course. he does have the facilities to do so

[@wheatamongtares777]

oh pls the world is flat anyways, these "scientists" care more about perfecting their alchemical formulas and achieving the philosophers stone than finding "water on mars"...

[@BsERoss]

Elon Musk can't stand the idea of people looking at anything else but him...

[@IngCarlosSagan]

It's already bad not being able to see the night sky because of the lights. What's happening to the human being?

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@Djrodwstop spamming comrade

[@user-ic8mt6jq1z]

he is just polluting the space with these tiny plastic/metal/glass satellites.

[@seniorlizardo8601]

He's building a Faraday cage

[@highflyingduck]

Elon Musk - The true Lex Luther. Somebody needs to start reigning this fiend in before it's too late.

[@moooonbounce]

internet has made life no better whatsoever..we all know it was better without..look at it today with it,what a world mess...no wonder they are looking for somewhere else to inhabit..

[@publics.public]

It is the only thing that has changed since the advent of civilization.

[@Ros-co]

Space Tax😊

[@Sam-mn4ed]

I’m so distracted by the necks of both women.

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Maybe, but at least they don't obstruct the view of the internet...... sorry, censor the internet.

[@who_this10]

elon musk is some foreign power against humanity

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@aw8079]

Who knew that a greedy Bond villain would be such a bad neighbor?

[@Djrodw]

*sniff *sniff... smells like POLITICAL BULLSHIT...

[@foxytv4896]

Children should be allowed to play freely in the Kindergarden. Somteimes though, it's time to say; Elon, put that thing down and get inside !

[@solapowsj25]

Priorities - research is important in the times today.

[@jacktheripper-hp9tx]

elon musk is another Thomas Midgley Jr

[@fordprefect.betelguese]

Musk spends all his money on this venture.... meanwhile nobody ive heard of uses starlink... what is going on?

[@deanosaur808]

Behind with the time innit lol

[@rolon-will3362]

Space Karen is destroying space.

[@sizoxaba8795]

😂😂😂😂😂America is a movie after what he posted about the president now this😂😂😂🎉😢