IT WILL be a long haul, but astronomers have taken the first step towards
winning international agreements to clear the fog of lights, radio signals and
orbiting junk obscuring our view of the cosmos.
At a meeting in Vienna last week, the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
finalised a document for this week鈥檚 special meeting of the UN Committee for the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, also in Vienna. 鈥淭his is the first time we鈥檝e gone
to the international level to seek solutions,鈥� says Woodruff Sullivan, an
astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Radio astronomers feel particularly besieged. More than 100 new satellites
are launched each year, many of which leak signals into the small part of the
spectrum reserved for radio astronomy. 鈥淚f you place an ordinary portable phone
on the Moon, it would be one of the four brightest radio sources in the sky,鈥�
says IAU general secretary Johannes Andersen, an astronomer at the University of
Copenhagen.
Advertisement
Optical astronomers also face new threats. In February, Russia attempted to
deploy an orbiting mirror that would have illuminated cities in the northern
hemisphere. It failed to unfurl
(This Week, 13 February, p 5), but astronomers
are anxious that the experiment shouldn鈥檛 be repeated.
The IAU document states that light sources, radio transmissions and orbiting
space junk should be classed as global pollutants, much as greenhouse gases are
today. It argues that space activities that might affect astronomical
observations should undergo an international environmental impact evaluation.
The document also calls for strict protection of the radio bands assigned to
astronomy.
If this week鈥檚 meeting reaches a consensus, the issue will become part of the
regular agenda for the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. This
might lead to binding international agreements. 鈥淭here are no indications that
member states are saying no,鈥� says Hans Haubold, head of the UN Office of Outer
Space Affairs in Vienna.