A radio telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia
J. Seymour/Green Bank Observatory
Radio telescopes observing the cosmos face growing challenges because of electromagnetic interference from thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. Now, experiments involving SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have shown how to virtually eliminate one form of this problem.
As these kind of satellites hurtle around the planet, they send so-called downlink signals to Earth to provide internet and communication services. When they pass through areas of the sky where radio telescopes are observing, the temporary blips from those strong signals can potentially impact hours of…