If there are advanced alien civilizations on faraway worlds staring at Earth through
telescopes, they are unaware that we exist. Aside from a trace of entirely artificial
CFC gases in our atmosphere, there is very little observable evidence that humans exist,
or ever existed, on this planet, if viewed from afar through a telescope.
Is SpaceX's ever-expanding "mega-constellation" of Starlink satellites changing that?
The Starlink satellite was one of the advancements brought about by the foundation of SpaceX. In a
recent conference call discussing these satellites, Elon Musk mentioned a new
feature that allows the satellites to broadcast signals to faraway worlds. What kinds of signals
does it transmit? Will the signals aid in the detection of extraterrestrial life? Join us
as we investigate how Elon Musk revealed that his satellites carry signals to other worlds.
SpaceX, a private spaceflight company, developed the Starlink satellite service
to provide low-cost internet access to remote and rural areas throughout the world.
Since 2019, SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites, and as of November 2022, there are
3,271 Starlink satellites in orbit, 3,236 of which are operational and floating in low-Earth orbit.
Musk intends to launch over 40,000 Starlink satellites by the end of this decade,
which would improve internet connectivity in all parts of the world. Each current
Starlink satellite weighs 573 pounds (260 kilograms) and is roughly the size of a table.
Rather than sending internet data via electric cables, which must be physically laid down
to reach remote locations, satellite internet operates by beaming information through space,
where it travels 47% faster than fiber-optic cable. Current satellite internet uses enormous
spacecraft that orbit 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above a specific location on Earth.
However, there are often large time delays in sending and receiving data at that distance.
By being closer to our planet and networking together, Starlink's satellites are meant to
carry large amounts of information rapidly to any point on Earth, even over the oceans
and in extremely hard-to-reach places where fiber-optic cables would be expensive to lay down.
In the latter half of 2022, Starlink's media download speed in the United States reached
slightly over 62 megabits per second, which is sufficient for a handful of people to watch
videos, download games, or do whatever they want on the internet. However, it was also revealed
that the Starlink satellites would not only provide internet access to everyone in all areas
but would also notify faraway civilizations living in interstellar space that we exist.
It was also hypothesized that Elon Musk's Starlink satellite broadcasts could cause aliens to choose
our planet as a subject of interest. However, it had to be demonstrated that it was correct, which
the scientists did! The notion was offered by Zaza Osmanov, an astronomy professor at Georgia's
Free University of Tbilisi. He stated that "the embodiment of all Starlink probes would cause them
to come together and form a huge mega structure that an alien civilization's radar could detect."
Osmanov had observed Starlink's electrical signature and how it would manifest itself
through transmissions to enormous interferometers in distant extraterrestrial civilizations. He
hypothesizes that because advanced interferometers on Earth can detect activity from other planets,
civilizations on distant worlds with the same or even superior technology could accomplish the same
with ease. Osmanov and his colleagues consider the likely observational features of a planetary
megastructure that partially or completely covers an Earth-like planet and is located in
the habitable zone, which means locating the key inflection point at which the Starlink satellites
would become visible to a distant observer. Before Osmanov and his team suggested this notion,
a couple of scientists and astronomers complained about the Starlink satellites
and how they were causing them problems and making their space observations more difficult.
Starlink satellites orbit around 55 kilometers above the Earth; at this altitude, they are easily
visible to the naked eye and do not require any additional equipment such as a telescope.
Elon Musk satellites in the night sky frequently resemble a train of dazzling lights or a String of
Pearls as they pass across the sky. They are more visible after launch for up to two days before
becoming less visible as they approach their final height in low earth orbit at 342 miles.
However, because they operate in this region,
they seem extremely luminous and are frequently observed travelling across the night skies.
It all began with astronomer Cliff Johnson of Northwestern University making an observation
of the Magellanic Clouds. The magellanic clouds are galaxies that astronomer's study in order to
learn about how stars emerge and what occurs when two galaxies collide. He was using a telescope
to observe these very faint dwarf galaxies at the Cerro Tololo Inter American Observatory in
Chile when the weirdest event happened during his observations. Johnson watched a streak
of bright objects cover the webcam slowly while remotely studying these galaxies. In
five minutes, a sequence of 19 satellites had crossed into Johnson's field of view,
marking their courses with brilliant parallel marks and decreasing their scientific worth.
Johnson and his team quickly knew who owned the problematic satellites because Elon Musk had
recently launched 60 additional satellites into low earth orbit a week prior. Johnson and his
colleagues were so unhappy with the scenario that they had to leave the observations at that time.
However, another astronomer, Johnson's colleague, who was also working that night, became enraged
and vented on Twitter. She was astonished by the large number of Starlink satellites
that crossed their telescope's field of view, significantly affecting their D Cam exposure.
Before that moment, Starlink satellites had been sent into space, and astronomers who observe
space were accustomed to Elon Musk satellites occasionally coming into view one at a time.
Their appearance does not completely degrade observations, but it does leave some long-lasting
imprints. It takes some laborious effort to remove them from the final image digitally but having a
streak of 19 satellites at the same moment on the image that they had not prepared for is a problem.
As a result, around 15 to 20% of the image was completely lost; nonetheless,
Cliff Johnson was unconcerned about the existing situation because it had already happened.
He viewed the swarm of many satellites as an omen since in the near future,
practically every telescope observation performed at night will include similar satellite streaks.
If this trend continues, Earth's orbit will be nearly covered by tens of thousands of satellites,
vastly outnumbering the about 9 000 stars visible to an unaided human eye. This worry is becoming a
reality as more satellites are launched, with over 3271 currently in orbit and more on their way.
SpaceX has received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to launch 12
000 satellites, but Musk is pushing for permission to launch 30 000 more. However,
it is still unapproved since space flight safety specialists are concerned about safe space travel.
Elon Musk's starlink satellites are at the top of the list of potential causes of collision hazards
in Earth's orbit. Some scientists and astronomers are also concerned about the amount of metal that
will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere as old satellites are deorbited, which could cause
unanticipated changes to the planet's climate. In light of these concerns expressed by
scientists and astronomers from numerous agencies, the International Astronomical
Union capped it all by addressing the astronomical community in a statement.
“Satellite constellations compose a significant or debilitating threat to important existing
and future astronomical infrastructures, we urge their designers and deployers,
as well as policy makers, to work with the astronomical community in a concerted
effort to analyze and understand the impact of satellite constellations,” the statement said.
Thomas Schildknecht, deputy director of the Astronomical Institute at the University of
Bern and Switzerland's representative in the IAU, also commented on the many satellite presences
in space. He made this declaration at the European Space Agency's space debris conference,
stating that the union requires the UN to intervene in the unrestrained proliferation of
mega constellations in space in order to conserve the pure night sky as we have always known it.
However, Elon Musk and his company SpaceX continue to launch satellites, and as a result,
the European Space Agency called the private space company out again for a near collision that nearly
occurred between its satellite and one of Musk's Starlink satellites. The agency announced that
it forced its Eola satellite to take preventative measures in order to avoid colliding with Starlink
44, one of the mega constellation's first 60 satellites. The European Space Agency was
forced to intervene after learning from the US military that the possibilities of a collision
were 1,000 times greater than the ESA's threshold for undertaking a collision avoidance maneuver.
Hugh Lewis, the head of the astronautics research group at the University of Southampton in the
United Kingdom and Europe's foremost space debris expert, also submitted his view,
claiming that Starlink satellites remain the single most significant source of collision
threat in low earth orbit. Lewis made the announcement after viewing measurements
from computer models that showed Starlink satellites involved 1600 interactions between
two spacecraft closer than 0.6 mile every week. This accounts for around half of all such events,
and the ratio grows with each new batch of satellites deployed into space. At this rate,
by the time Elon Musk has deployed all of his satellites, it may be too late to make changes.
Another major source of concern among scientists is how Starlink operator SpaceX, which had only
just begun delivering satellites into space, has become a totally dominant stakeholder
in low earth orbit, with choices that can have a significant impact on the safety of all activities
in low earth orbit. SpaceX, on the other hand, has indicated that it will work with organizations and
other space agencies to limit the potential repercussions of its Mega constellation.
In addition, the commercial space corporation reached out to astronomers to assuage their
fears about the Starlink satellite's effect on the night sky during astronomical observations.
The fact that the corporation demonstrated its commitment to finding a way forward with their
Starlink project does not diminish the importance of the research that other space organizations
are conducting. As a result of their commitment, SpaceX has begun to put their words into action,
such as the recently launched starlink satellite sport visors. The Starlink satellite sport visors
are meant to keep sunlight from illuminating their most reflective sections. Even though SpaceX is
beginning to take action and strive to upgrade the satellites, would the sports visor feature prevent
all of the Starlink satellites from coalescing into a massive megastructure, potentially allowing
aliens to detect us? However, the massive number of satellites in mega constellations from SpaceX
and other commercial space companies, such as OneWeb, suggests that light pollution and other
issues may persist, and activists have called on government authorities to impose stricter rules.
Let us know what you think in the comments section below.