A risky plan to turn night into day is one step closer to reality. Last week, US officials approved a mission to launch a giant mirror into space, where the device will reflect sunlight onto shadowed parts of the Earth. The start-up company behind the mission aims to place 50,000 mirrors in orbit by 2035, allowing for 'full noon' brightness in select spots. The start-up, Reflect Orbital in Hawthorne, California, says it intends to make 'clean, abundant energy available on demand'. The company says that its pockets of manufactured 'daytime' could increase agricultural productivity, aid natural-disaster relief efforts and allow solar panels to make electricity at night. But many astronomers worry that beams from the orbiting mirrors will interfere with sensitive telescope equipment and increase light pollution. 'With 50,000 satellites, that would probably mean the end of ground-based astronomy, or optical astronomy, at least,' says Roohi Dalal, deputy director of public policy at the...
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