• Question: Do you think that our space knowledge would be greatly effected without satellites?

    Asked by Anakin to Eimear, James, Jonathan, Lána, Willi on 27 Feb 2018.
    • Photo: Lána Salmon

      Lána Salmon answered on 27 Feb 2018:

      That’s a great question. Satellites give us a view of space that we can’t get on earth. For example, harmful UV, gamma-ray and X-ray light from space can’t get down to the earth’s surface because the atmosphere blocks it. Without this light, we wouldn’t be able to see some of the light from things like dying or merging stars (called Gamma-ray bursts) or from black holes. Without the light we wouldn’t be able to answer a lot of questions about what happens out in space to make these explosions happen.

    • Photo: William O'Connor

      William O'Connor answered on 27 Feb 2018:

      Definitely. Satellites tell us a lot about space, and about the Earth.
      There are many kinds of satellites: scientific, communication & TV, global positioning satellites, weather satellites, spy satellites, …
      Many of the science satellites have telescopes and other instruments to watch, measure and record.
      Some of these are looking down, watching what’s happening on Earth.
      Others are looking out into Space, exploring very distant galaxies, stars, radiation from very far away.
      Because they are above the atmosphere, they can usually see much more clearly, and much further, than telescopes on Earth.
      So they tell us a lot about the Universe and Space.

    • Photo: Eimear Tuohy

      Eimear Tuohy answered on 27 Feb 2018:

      Yes. As well as giving us a wealth of information about the Earth’s surface , satellites gather a great amount of information about conditions in space. Space is an very extreme environment. Satellites can gather information on temperature and radiation levels. Ina addition, satellite telescopes allow scientists to study far off galaxies and black holes. The Hubble Space Telescope is a great example 🙂

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