Companies wishing to broadcast in that region will have to ensure that their transmissions do not interfere with the activities of radio astronomers, who use their sensitive telescopes to study celestial objects. Otherwise, interference from broadcasts would cause the instruments to go haywire.
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The millimeter-wave region is a range of very high frequencies in the radio spectrum. It has very few commercial applications today -- probably a reason why the astronomers were able to claim it -- but it is useful for studying the formation of the stars.
"Between the stars there's a lot of diffuse material gas, and in the denser regions of that interstellar space is the material that will form new stars," said Dr. Paul Vanden Bout, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Those gases, he said, "radiate their energy in millimeter wavelengths."
The declaration was made at the World Radiocommunications Conference in Turkey last week. Radio astronomy now effectively owns the frequencies between 71 and 275 gigahertz. The deal was several years in the making.
Because no equipment currently transmits at these frequencies, no transmitters have to be taken off-line.
In the future, the millimeter-wave region could be requested by industry for applications like collision-avoidance radar for cars. But instead of taking a backseat to industry, astronomers will now be able to demand that any transmitters steer clear of methods that could ruin astronomical observations.
"It means you have to sit down and talk," Dr. Vanden Bout said. "There will be a way to study the universe and enjoy high tech."
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