{"id":65377,"date":"2026-04-18T15:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/satellite-mirrors-may-threaten-night-skies-and-ecosystems"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:36:35","slug":"satellite-mirrors-may-threaten-night-skies-and-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/satellite-mirrors-may-threaten-night-skies-and-ecosystems","title":{"rendered":"Satellite Mirrors May Threaten Night Skies and Ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. <\/strong> <\/span>Plans to launch reflective satellites and up to 1 million additional spacecraft in low Earth orbit could disrupt human sleep, wildlife, and ecosystems, scientists have warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proposed scale of orbital deployment would represent a significant alteration of the natural night-time light environment at a planetary scale,\u201d said the presidents of four international chronobiology societies, according to The Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>Charalambos Kyriacou, a geneticist at the University of Leicester and president of the European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS), added: \u201cWe\u2019re saying, please think before you go through with this, because this could have global implications for things like food security. Plants need the night. You can\u2019t just get rid of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflect Orbital aims to beam sunlight onto 5- to 6-kilometer (3.1-3.7-mile) areas \u201con demand,\u201d while Elon Musk\u2019s company SpaceX plans up to 1 million satellites for a solar-powered AI network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile ideas like mirrors on satellites beaming \u2018sunlight on demand\u2019&#8230; may sound like science fiction, these proposals are very real,\u201d said Ruskin Hartley of DarkSky International.<\/p>\n<p>Miroslav Kocifaj of the Slovak Academy of Sciences added that satellite reflections already raise night sky brightness and could approach thresholds set to preserve dark skies by 2035.<\/p>\n<p>Tami Martino, head of the Canadian Society of Chronobiology, said: \u201cCircadian systems are sensitive to light levels far below what humans typically perceive as bright. If the night sky becomes permanently brighter, the consequences could ripple through ecosystems in ways we do not yet fully understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Mauritius<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. Plans to launch reflective satellites and up to 1 million additional spacecraft in low Earth orbit could disrupt human sleep, wildlife, and ecosystems, scientists have warned. \u201cThe proposed scale of orbital deployment would represent a significant alteration of the natural night-time light environment at a planetary scale,\u201d said the presidents of four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":65376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-65377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Satellite Mirrors May Threaten Night Skies and Ecosystems - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Mauritius. Plans to launch reflective sa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/satellite-mirrors-may-threaten-night-skies-and-ecosystems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Satellite Mirrors May Threaten Night Skies and Ecosystems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Mauritius. 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