The FCC says the most controversial aspect of Reflect Orbital's Earendil-1 satellite, its giant mirror, falls outside its authority since the regulator mainly focuses on radio spectrum.
Visible light is a much higher frequency. And when you think about it, it would be bonkers for a government to regulate visible light as if it were a radio emission, because the Sun already emits a ton of it. I’d like to see some government try to license Sunlight…
You got that backward. Radio is a form of light/electromagnetism, not the other way around. Radio is a specific band of the light spectrum (about 3e-12THz to 3THz). Visible light is what we can see, and falls along a different part of the light spectrum (about 400-790THz)
Isn’t light technically on the radio spectrum? Like you can use any part of the electromagnetic spectrum for radio communication.
Not the radio spectrum, by definition. Visible light and radio are different parts of the spectrum
Scientifically, yes. But legally, governments control who can broadcast over which frequencies. The FCC has jurisdiction in the US for transmissions between 8.3kHz and 275 GHz., because those are most useful for communication.
Visible light is a much higher frequency. And when you think about it, it would be bonkers for a government to regulate visible light as if it were a radio emission, because the Sun already emits a ton of it. I’d like to see some government try to license Sunlight…
It’s on the “electromagnet spectrum” but “radio” is defined as a range on that spectrum.
But you are correct that they’re the same type of thing.
You got that backward. Radio is a form of light/electromagnetism, not the other way around. Radio is a specific band of the light spectrum (about 3e-12THz to 3THz). Visible light is what we can see, and falls along a different part of the light spectrum (about 400-790THz)