In recent months, a new "star" has emerged in the night sky, attracting the attention of stargazers and astronomers alike. The shiny new star is not a natural celestial body, but man-made – a communications satellite called BlueWalker 3. About the reasons that it worries many about the people of the earth we will explain with the help of ChatGPT.
Blue Walker 3 was launched by Texas-based startup AST SpaceMobile in September 2022, and aims to revolutionize global communications by placing cellular antennas in space. Despite this positive vision, which guarantees absorption everywhere on the planet, it also comes with an alarming 'side effect'.
The Blue Walker 3 has an impressive 64-square-meter antenna array – the size of a two-and-a-half-room apartment in Gush Dan – and all this size reflects sunlight back to Earth, making it one of the brightest objects in the night sky. According to recent research, it shines brighter than all the stars except the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and seven other stars. This phenomenon has sparked debate and debate about the side effects of placing satellites in orbit around our planet.
The main concern is interference with astronomical observations. This is because the large amount of light reflected by Blue Walker 3 can cause images of telescopes to burn in bright bands, hindering scientific data collection. Moreover, such satellites may also exacerbate the phenomenon of increasing radiofrequency interference at frequencies used by astronomers.
Blue Walker may be just one satellite, but it represents a problem that is emerging before our eyes: In recent years, more and more people have noticed "stars" moving rapidly in the sky, quickly turning out to be SpaceX's Starlink Internet service satellites. In the video combined above, an entire convoy of these satellites can be seen crossing the sky on the right, while on the left emerges the giant cellular satellite. Elon Musk's company has already been criticized for the interference its satellites cause to telescopes, and is trying to redesign them to reflect less sunlight.
AST SpaceMobile, the company behind Blue Walker 3, acknowledges the concerns raised by astronomers. She said she collaborates with NASA and astronomy groups to find industry-specific solutions, including operational interventions. The company is also taking steps to reduce the apparent size of the satellite by tilting it to different angles during flight, and avoids transmissions in frequency ranges close to the US "silent wave" standard.
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