Dr. Brian Keating

And the best astronomical telescopes are the ones that are launched above the atmosphere, out of the atmosphere. Hubble Space Telescope, Kepler, and now the James Webb Telescope. Again, those are multibillion-dollar telescopes.

The James Webb to build it – and by the way, one lesson to leave you with and maybe your audience with as well is whenever you hear a scientific instrument's cost, always in your mind at least double it. Andrew Lang, my late great mentor, used to say, multiply by pi. Because A, you're not taking into account the fact that you don't build, say, a destroyer or an aircraft carrier to build it.

The James Webb to build it – and by the way, one lesson to leave you with and maybe your audience with as well is whenever you hear a scientific instrument's cost, always in your mind at least double it. Andrew Lang, my late great mentor, used to say, multiply by pi. Because A, you're not taking into account the fact that you don't build, say, a destroyer or an aircraft carrier to build it.

The James Webb to build it – and by the way, one lesson to leave you with and maybe your audience with as well is whenever you hear a scientific instrument's cost, always in your mind at least double it. Andrew Lang, my late great mentor, used to say, multiply by pi. Because A, you're not taking into account the fact that you don't build, say, a destroyer or an aircraft carrier to build it.

You build it to use it. And it's about 10% of the construction cost to operate an instrument, a battleship, a telescope, whatever. It's a rule of thumb that project managers love to use. So that means in 10 years, it's going to double the price. And we hope that Hubble and Webb, and Hubble's already lasted 40 years on it. So it lasts a long time.

You build it to use it. And it's about 10% of the construction cost to operate an instrument, a battleship, a telescope, whatever. It's a rule of thumb that project managers love to use. So that means in 10 years, it's going to double the price. And we hope that Hubble and Webb, and Hubble's already lasted 40 years on it. So it lasts a long time.

You build it to use it. And it's about 10% of the construction cost to operate an instrument, a battleship, a telescope, whatever. It's a rule of thumb that project managers love to use. So that means in 10 years, it's going to double the price. And we hope that Hubble and Webb, and Hubble's already lasted 40 years on it. So it lasts a long time.

So whenever you hear this, but it's incredibly expensive. One kilogram used to cost like $10,000 to bring to orbit. And Elon keeps talking about how cheap it's going to be, but he has yet to launch a scientific instrument. I talked to him for 10 minutes on my podcast once, and I tried to get him to shut off these. Starlinks are amazing.

So whenever you hear this, but it's incredibly expensive. One kilogram used to cost like $10,000 to bring to orbit. And Elon keeps talking about how cheap it's going to be, but he has yet to launch a scientific instrument. I talked to him for 10 minutes on my podcast once, and I tried to get him to shut off these. Starlinks are amazing.

So whenever you hear this, but it's incredibly expensive. One kilogram used to cost like $10,000 to bring to orbit. And Elon keeps talking about how cheap it's going to be, but he has yet to launch a scientific instrument. I talked to him for 10 minutes on my podcast once, and I tried to get him to shut off these. Starlinks are amazing.

I have one in my house, but they have the property that they go through astronomical images and they leave a satellite trail behind them, which is ridiculous. It can be – you're taking a picture of a deep star, a deep galaxy or whatever and you see these streaks going through it. It ruins the image and you have to wait until they're gone.

I have one in my house, but they have the property that they go through astronomical images and they leave a satellite trail behind them, which is ridiculous. It can be – you're taking a picture of a deep star, a deep galaxy or whatever and you see these streaks going through it. It ruins the image and you have to wait until they're gone.

I have one in my house, but they have the property that they go through astronomical images and they leave a satellite trail behind them, which is ridiculous. It can be – you're taking a picture of a deep star, a deep galaxy or whatever and you see these streaks going through it. It ruins the image and you have to wait until they're gone.

But at least in optical astronomy, you can physically literally paint those satellites black and they will no longer reflect and so they won't obscure the image whatsoever.

But at least in optical astronomy, you can physically literally paint those satellites black and they will no longer reflect and so they won't obscure the image whatsoever.

But at least in optical astronomy, you can physically literally paint those satellites black and they will no longer reflect and so they won't obscure the image whatsoever.

They definitely are because while you can paint an optical satellite black and make it black, we're looking for heat. There's no way to stealth, you know, confuse or block out heat. Sorry, that's the law of thermodynamics. Anything that's above absolute zero will always give off heat.

They definitely are because while you can paint an optical satellite black and make it black, we're looking for heat. There's no way to stealth, you know, confuse or block out heat. Sorry, that's the law of thermodynamics. Anything that's above absolute zero will always give off heat.

They definitely are because while you can paint an optical satellite black and make it black, we're looking for heat. There's no way to stealth, you know, confuse or block out heat. Sorry, that's the law of thermodynamics. Anything that's above absolute zero will always give off heat.

And worst of all, the signals that he uses are in the exact microwave spectral range that we use to look at the CMB, the cosmic microwave background.