The story of how a B.C. man found his birth mother
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
Experts are warning that there appears to be nowhere left on Earth where astronomers can view the stars and planets without light pollution caused by satellites.
Sam Lawler, an associate professor at the University of Regina, says the darkness that astronomers and stargazers rely on is becoming harder to find due to the increase in "very reflective" satellites being sent into low orbit.
"The light pollution from satellites is global -- there's nowhere that you can get away from it," Lawler told CTV's Your Morning on Friday.
Lawler said the satellites causing the most recent problems are those launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet service.
"Just a few satellites is not a problem, but when all of a sudden there are thousands or tens of thousands of them reflecting sunlight, then that starts to change the way the night sky looks and we're right on the threshold of that," Lawler said.
Lawler said the number of low-flying satellites has "increased dramatically" in the last year, "almost entirely due to Starlink launches."
Lawler, who studies Kuiper Belt objects such as the planet Pluto, said these objects are 15 million times fainter than the Starlink satellites, hampering hers and other astronomers' work.
"They're launching more satellites every two to three weeks [in] batches of 60, so they want to get to 42,000 satellites when currently there's only a few thousand," she said.
"So this will very much change the way the night sky looks."
According to a study published in March, researchers with the Royal Astronomical Society found that the number of objects orbiting Earth, including satellites and space debris, could elevate the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10 per cent above natural light levels across the majority of planet.
The study reported that this would exceed a threshold that astronomers set more than 40 years ago for considering a location "light polluted."
A 2016 study also reported that 80 per cent of North Americans and 60 per cent of Europeans can no longer see the glowing band of the Milky Way because of the impact of artificial lighting.
Lawler acknowledged that there are "significant benefits" to these satellites, including internet access for those in remote communities. However, she said people in remote areas also have a "very good view of the night sky," and will have to give that up in return.
To help tackle the issue and protect the night sky, Lawler says there needs to be international regulation of space.
"We need to recognize that low Earth orbit is an environment that's intimately connected to our atmosphere, so that has to happen at the international level," Lawler said.
Lawler said Canada can also aid in reducing light pollution by implementing regulations that require communication services to take into account the negative impacts of satellites.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Israeli army ordered some 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.