Here’s an interesting little bit of news about potential future impacts of climate change: According to an astronomer in the U.K., 40 years from now it might be nearly impossible to use telescopes on the ground to see into space, thanks in part to increasing cloud cover caused by a changing climate.

The BBC reported [1] that “the era of ground astronomy may come to an end” in just four decades, due to both climate change and a growing amount of airplane contrails – trails of condensation from jet exhaust – in the sky. These trails disperse and have the same obscuring effect as clouds.

The astronomer, Gerry Gilmore, told the BBC that the problem is compounded by the fact that popular travel destinations, such as Hawaii and parts of South America, are also the sites of large observatories. Contrails from airplane traffic in these locations can clog the sky and obscure the view. Still, there are some places that could have clear skies decades in the future and could become observatory locations: Antarctica, for one.

Image credit: BBC [2]