BlueWalker 3 Satellite:
An international team of scientists have published a paper detailing the impact of the prototype BlueWalker 3 satellite on astronomy.
- BlueWalker 3 satellite is a prototype satellite, part of a satellite constellation planned by its owner AST SpaceMobile.
- It was one of the brightest objects in the night sky, outshining all the brightest stars.
- It was launched in September 2022.
- It is the largest-ever commercial communications array deployed in low-Earth orbit and is designed to communicate directly with cellular devices via 3GPP standard frequencies at 5G speeds.
- It uses wavelengths close to those that radio telescopes observe in, the satellite could also hamper radio astronomy.
Satellite constellation:
- It is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system.
- Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, such that at any time everywhere on Earth at least one satellite is visible.
