Information on Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris

Here are some general sources of information on light pollution, radio interference, and space debris:

Light Pollution

Most people today can only see a few stars due to the increasing brightness of the night sky from artificial sources. The brighter the night sky, the less one can detect faint objects. This affects almost every observatory in the world at some level.

Radio Interference

Observations at a wide range of wavelenghts is crucial to understanding our universe. Radio telescopes are not immune to interference caused by humans.

Space Debris

Space (or orbital) debris is any inactive object in Earth orbit. Today there are over 20,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters tracked, and the number is increasing. There are two concerns for astronomers: first, the collision risk that a piece of debris will disable an active astronomy mission. Second, it is now almost impossible to take long exposures of the night sky without at least one satellite streak appearing in the image.