EXOPLANET research seeks to identify and characterise alien planets orbiting other stars.

Since the first exoplanet was confirmed in 1992, thousands of others have been found.

One focus for this research is the characterisation of their atmospheres. Our own atmosphere, the gas layer in which we live, is so intimately linked to the existence of life on Earth that understanding the atmospheres of exoplanets provides crucial evidence to identify other Earth-like planets.

The search for Earth-like planets could help us understand the eventual fate of our own planet and its atmosphere. Moreover, it is our best bet for the discovery of the potential for extraterrestrial life.

Until recently, no planet outside of our solar system had been observed with helium in its atmosphere.

But last year, in the latest of a decade of breakthroughs in identifying atmospheric components, helium was observed on an exoplanet for the first time.

However the planet, WASP107b, is far too hot to support life as we know it.

The detection was made using a novel method which detects helium in the same state as it is found in our own atmosphere. The team, led by Dr Jessica Spake, hope their method will be applied to other planets in the search for somewhere comparable to Earth.

The discovery was made using measurements taken by the Hubble space telescope. However, even more excitingly the new technique can also be applied via telescopes on the ground, because it uses a wavelength of light that can travel through our own atmosphere without being absorbed.

A new generation of ground-based telescopes will soon be pointed at the best-known candidate planets in order to test for the existence of an atmosphere.

This will make observations possible without the need to compete for hugely in demand time on the small handful of space telescopes in current use.

Unfortunately, the progress of this research, and much other astronomy, is facing a problem greater than that of being able to construct cameras which can resolve objects hundreds of light years away.

Capitalist caricature Elon Musk, plans
to have 1,600 satellites orbiting by 2024, and nearly 12,000 satellites up in the skies by 2027

Just after midnight on Saturday May 25, we were camping in the Brecon Beacons Dark Sky Reserve.

Completely by chance, we saw the first evidence of technology which is about to dramatically change our relationship with outer space.

A chain of 60 bright lights, travelling in a long queue passed slowly across the sky.

We, along with unsuspecting stargazers all over the world, did not know that we had seen the company SpaceX’s latest venture, the StarLink, within 24 hours of its launch.

The StarLink is a series of 60 satellites travelling in an enormous train, and resembles just that: imagine Santa’s industrial multi-carriage behemoth.

As we were camping in a valley which is a mobile network blackout spot, we were unable to search online for the answer until we left.

Others loaded the first videos online that night. One notable video was posted by the Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek on his blog SatCamTrack Leiden.

Ironically, aside from being a publicity stunt, this enormous train of satellites was the second test phase of a worldwide grid network of satellites covering the entire planet’s surface, to provide internet connection anywhere in the world.

The satellites are now reported to have successfully completed their connection to ground stations, although four are “going down instead of up” and are expected to be actively “deorbited” — rocketed back towards Earth, burning up in its outer atmosphere.

While the incredible sight of the satellites made headlines, within a couple of years they will be a constant appearance.

SpaceX’s 60-strong test fleet announce the threshold of a new age of “satellite constellations” to provide internet access.

The company, owned by Twitter user and capitalist caricature Elon Musk, plans to have 1,600 satellites orbiting by 2024, and nearly 12,000 satellites up in the skies by 2027.

Musk has stated that the project is intended to raise money for his future space mission to Mars. The business is certainly slated to be lucrative and other companies are competing for the same goal, racing to launch hundreds more satellites in rival grids.

The arena of space law is still emerging, but currently dictates that companies must apply through the International Telecommunications Union (a UN agency) for their spot in the sky.

The StarLink alone will increase the number of low-orbit artificial satellites by five times within eight years. The night sky may never look the same again.

While the prospect of internet provision in currently isolated areas of the world has been welcomed, where does this leave the real constellations?

We risk losing sight of the universe beyond and perhaps the ambition
to understand our place in it

Musk has claimed that the satellites will be barely visible, but the satellites we’ve seen so far appear brighter than the brightest stars.

Astronomers’ best guesses are that once fully networked in 2027, about 500 satellites will be visible from any place on Earth, far outnumbering the visible stars in the sky.

As other companies are planning similar networks the cumulative effect could be even worse.

The effect on stargazing is more than just an aesthetic tragedy. Both the reflected light from the satellites and the frequencies used to beam data back and forth between them and the ground threaten to severely interfere with ground-based telescopes.

Astronomical research for the discovery of exoplanets, as for the investigation of countless other depths of outer space, will struggle to overcome the mess of visible satellites.

In order to preserve the starry skies that should belong to us all, as well as the potential for astrophysicists to discover the unknown universe, international efforts are needed to fight for common rights to the outer atmosphere.

The mystery and majesty of outer space, including the search for planets like our own, is one that speaks to our deepest urges for discovery.

By weaving this shimmering cage of satellites around ourselves, we risk losing sight of the universe beyond and perhaps the ambition to understand our place in it.