SpaceX setback: Astronomers could launch LEGAL BID to stop Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites

Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite broadband project that will eventually see tens of thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth to deliver the internet to every corner of the globe. Just 240 of the planned 42,000 small satellites have been sent into orbit but astronomers are already complaining Mr Musk has ruined their view of the stars.

Now astronomers are considering legal action against SpaceX to prevent it launching more of its satellites

The Astronomical Observatory of Trieste in Italy believe the night sky is a shared human right under the World Heritage Convention in a case which could be brought to the International Court of Justice.

The astronomers wrote: “The harm here is damage to our cultural heritage, the night sky, and monetary damages due to the loss of radio and other types of astronomy.

“It would be desirable to adopt contingent and limiting resolutions to be ratified as shared international rules.”

Scientists use radio astronomy for a range of issues, once taking the first ever image of a black hole.

However, radio astronomy is also used to search for signs of life elsewhere in the universe.

Telescopes such as the five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China and the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), to name just two, search for radio signals from deep space.

These radio signals can be created by black holes forming, stars colliding and even an extraterrestrial race trying to communicate throughout the cosmos.

Despite conceding Mr Musk’s Starlink project came with “good intentions”, astronomers are concerned about how it will effect their understanding of the universe and what it contains.

Last year, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) said in a statement: “The scientific concerns are twofold.

“Firstly, the surfaces of these satellites are often made of highly reflective metal, and reflections from the 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.

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“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.

“Recent advances in radio astronomy, such as producing the first image of a black hole or understanding more about the formation of planetary systems, were only possible through concerted efforts in safeguarding the radio sky from interference.”

SpaceX has been contacted for comment.

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