CEO Elon Musk’s space project Starlink has been criticised for preventing astronomers from observing the night sky. Clarae Martínez-Vázquez, an astronomer observing the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Coquimbo, Chile, witnessed a train of Starlink satellites crossing the skies last month, heavily affecting the camera’s exposure. Ms Martínez-Vázquez wrote on Twitter: “Wow. I am in shock.
“In shock at the huge amount of Starling satellites crossed our skies tonight.
“Our DECam exposure was heavily affected by 19 of them.
“The train of Starlink satellites lasted for over five minutes.
“Rather depressing… This is not cool!”
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Mr Musk launched 60 of his satellites in May ahead of another 60 his company launched last month.
The Boring Company CEO plans to launch a constellation of the satellites to provide internet access to remote areas through communication with grounded transceivers at an estimated cost of $10billion.
Despite his loft intentions Mr Musk has faced opposition from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) who expressed concern of the use of the satellites in June.
They warned they could threaten both the darkness of the sky which is considered essential to the further understanding of the universe and protection of nocturnal wildlife.
In a statement, they said: “First, the surfaces of these satellites are often made of highly reflective metal and reflection from he SUN in the hours after sunset and before sunrise make them appear as slow-moving dots in the night sky.
“Although most of these reflections may be so faint that they are hard to pick out with the naked eye, they can be detrimental to the sensitive capabilities of large ground-based astronomical telescopes, including the extreme wide-angle survey telescopes currently under construction.
“Secondly, despite notable efforts to avoid interfering with radio astronomy frequencies, aggregate radio signals emitted from the satellite constellations can still threaten astronomical observations at radio wavelengths.
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“Recent advances in radio astronomy, such as producing the first image of a black hole or understand more about the formation of planetary systems, were only possible through concerted efforts in safeguarding the radio sky from interference.”
Prince Andrew also rejected Ms Roberts’ accusations against him again.
The Palace said: “It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
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