Paris (AFP) – More “green” space missions? Observations of stars emit a negligible amount of CO2 and in the face of climatic urgency, astronomers must reduce the carbon footprint of their research infrastructures, according to a study that sparked the debate.
This is the first time that researchers have attempted to evaluate the amount of gas to be produced by the 30,000 astronomers and their working instruments that are terrestrial radio telescopes, probes and rovers sent into space.
According to first conclusions, published on Monday in Nature Astronomy, the total activity of these instruments, since their operation, produced at least 20.3 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of the annual carbon balance of Estonia or of Croatia.
By astronomer, this represents the annual emissions of 1.2 million tons.
[À lire aussi Les satellites pour l’Internet risquent de représenter 1 objet lumineux sur 15 dans le ciel étoilé d’ici quelques années]
A quantity almost “five times higher” that this is generated by the aerial flights of astronomers, when they travel for professional reasons, the study states. “The community of astronomers is currently discussing the reduction of carbon dioxide linked to transport, as well as the activity of supercalculators,” explained Jürgen Knödlseder, AFRS research director and lead author of the study. “It’s good, unless they do not see the elephant in the piece: the question of infrastructure”.
To evaluate the size of the “elephant”, the researcher passed 50 crib space missions and 40 solar observation installations: Hubble telescopes, Max Planck, Insight (Mars) exploration missions, Rosetta probe (Tchouri comet »), Very large telescope (VLT) in Chile…
“Ivory Tour”
It would ideally be worth taking into account construction materials, operating costs, electricity consumption…. But these data are often unavailable, sometimes due to lack of transparency on the part of spatial agencies, explains Jürgen Knödlseder, who works at the Institute of Astrophysical Research and Planetology of Toulouse.
To fill in these gaps, its team called for a method developed by Ademe (Agency for the Environment and Mastery of Energy) and the Association Bilan Carbone (ABC): cell dite des ratios Monétaires, selon where carbon emissions from an activity are proportional to its cost and mass.
Thus, according to their calculations, the James Webb spatial telescope, valued at $ 10 billion, and the future radio telescope giant “Square Kilometer Array”, in South Africa and Australia, will be the only two responsible for the equivalent of at least 300,000 tons of CO2.
“We must reflect on reducing gas to the effect of conserving our infrastructures,” says Jürgen Knödlseder. And “all the world has to take part, including the astronomers who are not in a tour of life”, commented Annie Hughes of the Max Planck Institute, one of the authors of the study, during a press conference.
“Slow down the machine”
“I know this can be shocking, but it is necessary to slow down the machine and we will reduce by almost 50% the emissions of 2030”, engem abondé Jong College Astronomer Luigi Tibaldo.
[À lire aussi Aurélien Barrau : « SpaceX et la nouvelle conquête spatiale : la démonstration de notre incohérence »]
“Like all activity, astronomy has a negligible carbon footprint, our challenge is therefore to slow down the construction of infrastructures all while continuing the search for excellence”, estimated Éric Lagadec, president of the French and Astrophysical Society , who did not participate in the study.
But the methodology is very much discussed: the estimate by the monetary ratios generates a high degree of uncertainty (up to 80%), which can “start the credibility of the results”, as well as a commentary in Andrew Rosson’s margin of the study.
“Failure to know the details of what a consumer installation, they calculated + to the pipe +”, is part of the astrophysicist Françoise Combes, of the Observatory of Paris-PSL. Who also disputes the fact of having divided the global cost by the number of astronomers: “When we built an observatory, it’s for science, it benefits millions of people!” “It’s like you divide the cost of an opera only by those who are”, comments the scientist.
“The method is debatable, but the approach is a first step that deserves to be reflected on”, concludes Éric Lagadec.
© AFP
Climate: the world is studying the solutions to avoid all the “closed eyes towards disaster”
Two solutions to reduce the energy and climate impact of data centers
Sociologist Clémence Perronnet: “There is no interest in science, physics, mathematics or ecology. C’est quelque huet qui s’ququiert gewielt. »
Add Comment