Scientists call for the preservation of the night sky, an intangible heritage of Humankind

Comparação entre o céu visto no Porto (à direita) e na Namíbia (à esquerda)

Comparação entre o céu visto no Porto (à direita) e na Namíbia (à esquerda). Créditos: Falchi et al., 2023.

The night sky is becoming degraded in a dramatic way, due to human activities. Scientists are calling for the mobilization of the scientific community and for international regulation.

This March, a call has been made by scientists, A call for scientists to halt the spoiling of the night sky with artificial light and satellites 1, an article with the contribution of Raul Cerveira Lima (IA/Universidade de Coimbra, Politécnico do Porto). It was published together with new studies addressing the degradation of dark skies, in this month’s issue of Nature Astronomy magazine.

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Notes

  1. Falchi, F., Bará, S., Cinzano, P., Lima, Raul C., Pawley, Martin. A call for scientists to halt the spoiling of the night sky with artificial light and satellites. Nature Astronomy 7, 237–239 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01864-z