In 2019 astronomer Samantha Lawler moved from the Canadian province of British Columbia to that of Saskatchewan to take up a position at the University of Regina. There, she expected to be fully engrossed in studying the early movements of our Solar System’s giant planets. But after spending time gazing up at the Milky Way from her own backyard—something she was able to do now that she lived in an area with minimal light pollution—she started down a second, all-consuming path: advocating for satellite regulation.
Lawler was spurred into action after noticing that the images she was capturing of the night sky were being streaked by light reflected from the lengthening train of satellites that were crossing her field of view. “It was a selfish concern at first,” she says. But the concern soon became broader when she realized the potential impact of these streaks on astronomy research data beyond her own. Physics Magazine caught up with Lawler to learn more about the problem and to find out why she has made it her mission to educate the public about the impact of satellites on telescope data.
Good luck with regulating that.
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