Related papers: Light pollution is skyrocketing
Galactic dust emission is polarized at unexpectedly high levels, as revealed by Planck. The origin of the observed $\simeq 20\%$ polarization fractions can be identified by characterizing the properties of optical starlight polarization in…
The determination of chemical abundances from stellar spectra is considered a mature field of astrophysics. Digital spectra of stars are recorded and processed with standard techniques, much like samples in the biological sciences.…
Stars accrete near invisible hydrogen dominated agglomerates. This population, the `dark matter,' effects the nature of stars. Measurements show plasma streams impacting Earth, planets, Sun and stars. This mass-energy source contradicts…
Astronomy can never be a hard core physics discipline, because the Universe offers no control experiment, i.e. with no independent checks it is bound to be highly ambiguous and degenerate. Thus e.g. while superluminal motion can be…
We review the status and future of direct searches for light dark matter. We start by answering the question: `Whatever happened to the light dark matter anomalies?' i.e. the fate of the potential dark matter signals observed by the CoGeNT,…
We assess the impact of satellite glints -- rapid flashes produced by reflections of a sunlight from flat surfaces of rotating satellites -- on current and future deep sky surveys such as the ones conducted by the Zwicky Transient Facility…
The quality of air is closely linked with the life quality of humans, plantations, and wildlife. It needs to be monitored and preserved continuously. Transportations, industries, construction sites, generators, fireworks, and waste burning…
The global star formation rate in high redshift galaxies, based on optical surveys, shows a strong peak at a redshift of z=1.5, which implies that we have already seen most of the formation. High redshift galaxies may, however, emit most of…
Coherence-enhanced light harvesting has not been directly observed experimentally, despite theoretical evidence that coherence can significantly enhance light-harvesting performance. The main experimental obstacle has been the difficulty in…
In August 2025 a workshop was convened to bring together experts to better understand steps that can be taken to mitigate the impact of satellite constellations on astronomical observations. At the time, just over 12,000 operational…
Searches for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) using large survey data often look for possible signatures of astroengineering. We propose to search for physically impossible effects caused by highly advanced technology, by carrying out…
It has now been firmly established that the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, driven by a presently unknown form of dark energy that appears to dominate our Universe today. A dedicated satellite mission has been designed to…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly from the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and indirectly, from measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. Dark energy contributes about 2/3 of the…
Light pollution is a growing environmental issue that affects astronomy, ecosystems, human health. To address this, we introduce the Free Dark Sky Meter (FreeDSM), an affordable IoT-based photometer designed for continuous light pollution…
We present our study on cosmic opacity, which relates to changes in photon number as photons travel from the source to the observer. Cosmic opacity may be caused by absorption/scattering due to matter in the universe, or by extragalactic…
Recent PAMELA and ATIC data seem to indicate an excess in positron cosmic rays above approximately 10 GeV which might be due to galactic Dark Matter particle annihilation. However the background of this signal suffers many uncertainties…
This article is a second analysis step from the descriptive arXiv:2001.10952 preprint. This work is aimed to arise awareness to the scientific astronomical community about the negative impact of satellites' mega-constellations and put in…
A model that combines celestial geometry and atmospheric physics is used to calculate the dimming of artificial satellites as they enter and exit the Earth's shadow. Refraction of sunlight by the terrestrial atmosphere can illuminate a…
The rapid growth of satellite constellations, particularly Starlink, is increasingly affecting ground-based astronomy. In this project, we developed a workflow to detect, identify, and measure the brightness of trails from artificial…
Human activities degrade the Earth environment at an unprecedented scale and pace, threatening Earth-system stability, resilience and life-support functions. We can of course deny the facts, get angry about them, or try to bargain. Or we…