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A comment on SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation’ threat to astronomy. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation... by SiempreViernes on Thursday January 16, 2020 @02:51PM (#22068176)
> but much (most?) of the most important work in modern astronomy is satellite based.

You're going to have to point out which source you pulled that out of! As a simple example, more than half of the Nobel prizes awarded for astronomy since 2000 are for discoveries made with ground based detectors. And of those awarded to satellite experiments, none was actually competing with a ground based experiment, so satellites mainly bring different, not better, capabilities.

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Re:SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation... by jessaustin on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:47PM (#22069339)
...ground based detectors...

When I encounter this phrase I think of things like the neutrino detector in Antarctica, which of course isn't affected by satellites at all. How much contemporary astronomy relies on visible-light telescopy?

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Re:SpaceX tests black satellite to reduce ‘megaconstellation... by petschge on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:52PM (#22069389)
A very large fraction. Optical is still the most important band, probably followed by radio, x-ray, IR and gamma ray in that order. And less then 10% of optical is done using satellites.
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