Get outside and see some stars folks – “Ground-based astronomy could be impossible in 40 years because of pollution from aircraft exhaust trails and climate change, an expert says. Aircraft condensation trails – known as contrails – can dissipate, becoming indistinguishable from other clouds. If trends in cheap air travel continue, says Professor Gerry Gilmore, the era of ground astronomy may come to an end much earlier than most had predicted.” – Link.
Related: Webcam Telescope by Dennison Bertram in DIY: Imaging. Video from still camera zoom. Forget jerky teleconferences; put a real lens on a 90s era webcam and you’ve got something. MAKE 02 – Page 133.
4 thoughts on “Telescopes ‘worthless’ by 2050”
Comments are closed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
Of course, some would argue that the age of cheap air travel will soon end. From a Michael Ventura editorial for the Austin Chronicle:
While ground based astronomy may be in doubt, the cost associated with getting into space should drop to levels that make space based astronomy just as cheap as the ground level stuff. For example, we’re working on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle that can give you about 8 to 10 minutes of time above the atmosphere for about $250/kg.
So, as electronics and adaptive optics improve you can easily fit a good bit of telescope as a payload on a cheap suborbital flight. Extrapolate that to orbit with nanosats and you can easily envision a world where every astronomer has his/her own personal Hubble.
40 years is a LOOOONG time to extrapolate current technology change rates through. By then we could easily have bio-engineered eyes that can see in wavelengths that pass through clouds.