News Astronomy

Starlink satellites’ leaky radio waves obscure the cosmos

Their unintentional emissions are about 10 million times brighter than natural sources

A line of bright spots representing satellites are seen in the night sky above a home

Unintentional radio emissions from Starlink satellites (a group of which are shown here crossing the sky) threaten radio astronomy, a new study suggests.

Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images

By Sid Perkins

While SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are enabling internet access and cell phone communications around the globe, they’re also posing a threat to radio astronomy, a new study suggests.

In some wavelength bands, unintended leakage of electromagnetic radiation from the latest generation of the satellites is more than 30 times brighter than emissions from previous versions, Cees Bassa, a radio astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in Dwingeloo and his colleagues report September 18 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.