Around the world, birds sing longer in light-polluted areas 🌍🎶 | A behavioral analysis of nearly 600 bird species suggests that light pollution from human development can lengthen the time birds spend singing by nearly an hour per day 🌙🐦✨

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#Birds #LightPollution #WildlifeConservation #EnvironmentalImpact #NatureResearch

A NASA study predicts that 96% of the images from the ARRAKIHS mission will be contaminated by the light from the more than 500,000 devices that Starlink and other megaconstellations intend to launch 🌌🚀✨

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#NASA #ARRAKIHS #Starlink #lightpollution #spaceobservations

🔭 One Million Satellites Could Devastate Night Sky Views, Study Warns
A European Southern Observatory (ESO) study indicates that proposals for over 1.7 million satellites, including very bright ones, would severely impact astronomical observations. The study suggests a limit of 100,000 faint satellites (below naked-eye visibility) to protect the night sky.

✨ Reflect Orbital's Bright Satellites Pose Major Threat
US start-up Reflect Orbital plans to launch 50,000 mirror-like satellites by 2035, designed to reflect sunlight. These could appear four times brighter than the full Moon, making hundreds of satellites visible and potentially turning city skies into a starry void of satellites rather than stars.

🔭 SpaceX's Mega-Constellation and Other Proposals Amplify Concerns
SpaceX alone plans one million more satellites. Combined with other planned constellations like E-Space's Cinnamon and China's CTC-1 and 2, the total number of orbiting objects could drastically brighten the night sky, hindering the observation of distant galaxies and exoplanets.

📉 Loss of Astronomical Data Predicted
Calculations suggest that SpaceX's mega-constellation could cause up to 28% loss of valuable data for telescopes like ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Brighter satellites, such as those from Reflect Orbital, could render entire images from observatories like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory unusable for hours each night.

#Astronomy #Space #LightPollution

✨ New research from the University of Surrey shows how Vantablack® 310, an ultra-black coating, could significantly reduce light pollution from satellites.

🚀 With up to 60,000 satellites projected by 2030, this dark coating reflects only about two percent of light, minimizing bright streaks and flares that interfere with astronomical observations.

🛰️ An in-orbit demonstration is planned aboard the Jovian-1 CubeSat mission to test the coating's performance and its measurable impact on satellite brightness from Earth.

#Astronomy #SpaceTech #LightPollution

Too much light during nighttime sleep may damage the heart: « Darkness should be recognized as one of the vital signs for health, researchers suggest. »

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#LightPollution #NighttimeHealth #SleepScience