2023-05-30 16:05:00
Astronomy The increasing use of lighting of all kinds using LEDs leads to a dramatic brightening of the night sky. Scientists suspect that in 20 years most of the major constellations will no longer be visible
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It gets lighter and brighter at night on Earth
Foto: Nasa/picture alliance/dpa
The sun shone brightly over the Herefordshire hills last weekend. Summer had arrived and the skies were clear—conditions that once heralded pitch-black nights of blazing stars, meteorites, and planets.
But it shouldn’t be. The night sky was dark gray rather than black, and only a handful of stars shimmered once morest the background. The Milky Way, which once glittered across the sky, might not be seen. The beginning of summer had once once more revealed a bane of modern times: light pollution.
The increasing use of light-emitting diodes (LED) and other types of lighting is causing the night sky to brighten dramatically, scientists have found. The indiscriminate
in. The indiscriminate use of outdoor lighting, streetlights, , and lighted sports facilities now blinds our view of the stars. In 2016, astronomers reported that the Milky Way was no longer visible to a third of humanity, and light pollution has worsened significantly since then. It is estimated that in 20 years most of the major constellations will no longer be visible. The loss, both cultural and scientific, will be profound. “The night sky is part of our environment and it would be a great loss if the next generation mightn’t see it, just as it would be if they mightn’t see a bird’s nest would,” said Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal. “You don’t have to be an astronomer to be interested in this topic. I’m not an ornithologist, but if there weren’t songbirds in my garden I would feel impoverished.” Rees is a co-founder of the cross-party Parliamentary Dark Skies Group, which recently presented a report outlining a range of measures to tackle light pollution is required. These include proposals to appoint a Dark Skies Minister, set up a Dark Skies Commission and set strict standards for lighting density and direction. The introduction of a carefully selected package of planning regulations to control intrusive light – backed by legal Handling and penalties for non-compliance – might make a big difference, the committee stressed. The alternative would be to lose the night sky, which “is emblazoned with sparks without number,” to quote Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.Other colors once morest light pollution: red-orange instead of blue-whiteResearch by physicist Christopher Kyba from the German Center for Geosciences has shown that that light pollution is finally brightening the night sky by regarding 10 percent a year, an increase that might result in only the brightest stars being visible in a generation. A child born in a place where 250 stars are visible at night today will only be able to see regarding 100 by the time they are 18. Viewing a night sky streaked with a glittering Milky Way is taken to a magnificence of another of the age, Kyba told the Observer. “A few generations ago, people would still have been regularly confronted with this glittering vision of the cosmos—but what was once universal is now extremely rare. Only the richest and some of the poorest people in the world still experience this. For everyone else, it’s more or less gone.” Still, introducing a modest number of changes to the lighting might make a significant improvement, Kyba argued. This would include carefully screening the exterior lighting, aiming it downwards, limiting its brightness and not being predominantly blue and white, but having red and orange components. “Such measures would have a tremendous impact,” he added. The problem is that light pollution is still not perceived as a threat by the public. Professor Oscar Corcho from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid put it this way: “The negative consequences of light pollution are as unknown in the population as smoking was in the 1980s.” Aside from the astronomical and cultural effects, light pollution also has serious ecological consequences. Sea turtles and migratory birds use the moonlight for orientation. The light pollution confuses them and causes them to lose their way. Insects, an important food source for birds and other animals, are attracted to artificial light and die instantly when exposed to the light source. The arguments once morest light pollution go further. The bluish emissions from LEDs contain almost no red or near-infrared light, according to Prof Robert Fosbury of the Department of Ophthalmology at University College London (UCL). “We’re being starved of red and infrared light, and the consequences are serious,” he said. “When red light shines on our body, it stimulates mechanisms that, among other things, break down high blood sugar levels or boost melatonin production. Since the advent of fluorescent tubes and later LEDs, this part of the spectrum has disappeared from artificial light and I think this plays a role in the obesity surge and rise in diabetes cases we are seeing today.” The UCL researchers are preparing to install additional infrared lamps in hospitals and intensive care units to see if they affect the recovery of patients who would otherwise not receive light from this part of the spectrum changing the face of the planet and making LEDs a friendlier lighting,” Fosbury said. It will be a big task, but we have to do it because it has a very harmful effect on human health.”
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