If the space environment gets any more polluted by floating junk, too much light and radio signals, then astronomers won't be able to carry out research.
Such was the message conveyed at a recent meeting in Vienna organised by the International Astronomical Union, at which researchers lamented the slow but steady degradation of the space environment. Space was long considered safe from the depredations of man, but delegates heard that the extremely sensitive instruments used by astronomers today were increasingly being disturbed by specific types of space pollution.
Top of the list was interference at radio frequencies from telecommunications satellites, pollution which makes radio astronomy particularly difficult. Communications companies continue pushing for access to new wavebands, restricting the range of frequencies left clear for this type of cosmic observation.
Space junk of all sizes and shapes causes problems for the new massive earth-based telescopes that are coming on stream including the six to eight-metre mammoths being commissioned in Arizona and Hawaii. Space flights leave all sorts of junk behind them, from bits of fairings to a camera that escaped during a US manned launch. Space debris is also a threat to very sensitive scientific satellites.
Delegates also heard concerns expressed about a selection of projects to launch highly luminous objects into space for a variety of purposes including earth illumination and, of all things, advertising.
Man-made light pollution has already rendered large areas of the world unsuitable for astronomical observations. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep away from light sources and maintain the quality of ground-based observations.
The pollution of space represented a major threat to astronomy, jeopardising a science that had contributed to human progress for thousands of years, delegates were told. "The rapidly accelerating exploitation of space is quickly degrading an environment that has been declared the common heritage of all mankind," stated Dr Johannes Andersen, general secretary of the IAU.
"Because astronomers must use extremely sensitive instruments to study very faint and distant objects in the universe, they are the first to feel the effects of this degradation. However, they will not be alone for long."