Radio telescopes could be practically “blinded” by unintended radio waves emitted from the vast constellation of satellites operated by Elon Musk’s Starlink, researchers have said.

Starlink can offer broadband internet services to almost any location on Earth using signals beamed down from one of its 6,281 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It plans to add thousands more to make the service more robust.

Netherlands researchers made observations with the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope last year that showed that first generation Starlink satellites emit unintended radio waves that can hinder astronomical observations.

However, new observations show that the second-generation ’V2-mini’ Starlink satellites emit up to 32 times brighter unintended radio waves than satellites from the previous generation, potentially blinding radio telescopes and crippling vital research into the universe.

The V2-minis have been designed to improve upon the connectivity and communication services provided...