February 2026: Connection, Light Pollution News

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This Episode:

Welcome to Light Pollution News! This episode, we ask, what can looking at SPHEREx images tell you about yourself? And, what!! Satellites can still cause light streaks…even for space telescopes! And, more important news about health and ecology came up this month! You’ll definitely want to listen!

I welcome back AstronEra’s Shweta Kulkarni; acclaimed photographer, Josh Dury; and a true leader in advocacy work, Mr. Jim Webster!

Host:

Guests:

Shweta Kulkarni

Shweta Kulkarni is an astronomer, entrepreneur, and pioneer of India’s dark sky movement. She became CEO of the Astron SHK Trust at eighteen while pursuing her BSc in Astronomy. She now directs AstronEra, an organisation dedicated to dark sky preservation that operates in over one hundred and twenty countries, collaborating with DarkSky International and government institutions.
Her work has earned grants from India’s Department of Science and Technology, Maharashtra’s Tribal Development Department, and the International Astronomical Union. Notable recognitions include her 2018 selection among India’s Top One Hundred Women Entrepreneurs, Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society, and the 2024 Dark Sky Defender Award Asia—making her the first Indian recipient.

Jim Webster

Jim Webster is an astrophotographer, dark sky advocate, and SciStarter Ambassador from New Jersey. After serving in the Air Force and working as a Verizon operations supervisor, he rekindled his childhood passion for astronomy in 2017, which led him to discover light pollution’s harmful effects. As a DarkSky Advocate with the International DarkSky Association, he educates communities at parks, libraries, and festivals about citizen science projects like Globe at Night and Marine Debris Tracker. Through Verizon’s partnership with SciStarter, he uses hands-on presentations with props like meteorite shards and ocean debris to make science accessible, helping establish a light pollution exhibit at Jake’s Branch County Park and inspiring others to turn curiosity into environmental action.

Josh Dury

Josh Dury Photo-Media AKA ‘Starman’ (B.A. FRAS), is an Internationally Acclaimed, Award-Winning Landscape Astrophotographer, Presenter, Speaker, Best-Selling Author and Writer from The Mendip Hills AONB in Somerset, United Kingdom. His images having received endorsements by NASA, APOLLO 11 Astronaut – Buzz Aldrin, The European Space Agency (ESA) + British Astronaut – Tim Peake, The World At Night (TWAN), PPOD, BBC & CBS amongst others. He also acts as a Delegate of Dark Sky International for Bristol, UK.

Full Article List:

1. Sergio Montúfar brings the Mayan skies from sacred sites to Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, Ingrid Reyes, Prensa Libre.
2. Explore NASA’s most detailed map of the night sky yet, Andrew Paul, Popular Science.
3. The Biggest Satellite Ever Just Reached Low-Earth Orbit, And It’s Coming For Starlink, Nicholas Werner, Jalopnik.
4. An exploded Starlink satellite is orbiting Earth right now, Chase DiBenedetto, Mashable.
5. Satellite megaconstellations will threaten space-based astronomy, Nature.
6. Impact of artificial light at night on zebrafish circadian rhythms: Insights from behavioural and molecular data, Science of The Total Environment.
7. Artificial light drives nocturnal foraging in cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) in urban-modified wetlands of Southern Nigeria, Urban Ecosystems.
8. Light and Environment: Regulation of Seasonal Reproduction in Wild Birds, Wild.
9. Minimizing aviation lighting duration reduces bat attraction to wind turbines, Journal of Applied Ecology.
10. Artificial light at night can worsen competitive outcomes between native and invasive grasses, Biological Conservation.
11. Lost in the Glow: How Light Pollution Disrupts Pollinator Behavior, Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology.
12. Minimizing aviation lighting duration reduces bat attraction to wind turbines, Journal of Applied Ecology.
13. How to attract bats into your garden, Hannah Stephenson, The Independent.
14. Tawny owls are turning to street lighting to help them hunt, British Ecological Society.
15. Impact of artificial light at night on obesity and overweight: a systematic review and meta-analysis, BMC Public Health.
16. The impact of nighttime lighting satisfaction on the enjoyment of nocturnal physical activity and mental health, Acta Psychologica.
17. Bright light exposure suppresses feeding and weight gain via a visual circuit linked to the lateral hypothalamus, Nature Neuroscience.
18. Associations of outdoor artificial light at night exposure with telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number in children and adolescents: Examining sex-specific associations, Environmental Research.

Light Pollution News: January Highlights

FDA Petition Seeks Investigation Into LED Light Health Impacts

The Soft Lights Foundation has submitted a petition to the US Food and Drug Administration requesting investigation into health impacts of LED light exposure on individuals. Past Light Pollution News guest Mark Baker forwarded this regulatory intervention, marking formal federal engagement on artificial lighting technology safety concerns and potential physiological effects of blue-rich LED spectrum exposure.

Astrophotographer Debuts Milky Way Photography Over Mayan Archaeological Sites

Acclaimed astrophotographer and advocate Sergio Montufar recently unveiled his Estrellas Ancestrales (Ancestral Stars) project featuring Milky Way photography captured over important Mayan sites along a prominent avenue in Mexico City. The exhibition showcases celestial images within archaeological and mythological context of Mayan culture, bridging ancient astronomy traditions with contemporary astrophotography.

NASA SPHEREx Mission Continues Full-Sky Infrared Mapping Program

NASA’s SPHEREx mission narrowly averted budget cuts from the Trump White House, receiving only 2% budget reduction while maintaining its ambitious full-sky 3D mapping program utilizing low earth orbit telescope technology. The observatory captures approximately 3600 photos daily using six image sensors shooting exclusively in infrared wavelengths, producing composite images revealing dark nebulas and celestial structures invisible at visual wavelengths. As wavelengths extend to five microns, previously hidden dark nebulas become pronounced while other objects disappear, demonstrating infrared astronomy’s unique observational capabilities.

Satellite Megaconstellations Threaten Space Telescope Observations

Research published in Nature forecasts severe contamination of space telescope observations from satellite megaconstellations, with AST SpaceMobile launching BlueBird 6 satellites measuring 2400 square feet when unfurled—approximately the size of three-bedroom apartments. Study projections reveal 40% of Hubble Space Telescope images will contain satellite trails, while over 96% of exposures from SPHEREx, ARRAKIHS, and Xuntian observatories will be affected. The Chinese Xuntian observatory operating at 540 kilometers altitude could average 92 satellite trails per image, while ARRAKIHS at 800 kilometers may experience 69 trails per exposure. Current mitigation efforts including dark satellite coatings barely help space telescopes and may actually worsen problems due to orbital geometry considerations. The research team simulated observations using orbital data from over 560,000 planned satellites filed with regulators, validating their approach against actual Hubble data from 2018-2021 showing 4.3% of images already contain satellite trails.

Zebrafish Circadian Disruption Documented Under Urban Light Conditions

Science of the Total Environment research demonstrates that 3.3 lux exposure—approximately ten times brighter than natural moonlight at 0.1-0.3 lux—disrupts zebrafish circadian rhythms and suppresses clock gene expression. Researchers studied 136 zebrafish aged 8-12 months over two-month observation periods in 2024, exposing subjects to 12 hours daylight followed by 12 hours dim light simulating urban light pollution conditions. Study findings reveal zebrafish exposed to artificial lighting could not sustain typical diurnal rhythms, with muted clock gene expression documented though impact assessment of reduced gene expression was not conducted.

Tawny Owls Exploit Streetlights for Enhanced Hunting Success

British Ecological Society research examining a December 17th presentation by Giuseppe Orlando reveals tawny owls leverage streetlights to improve predation efficiency in urban environments. The owls exploit man-made environmental conditions including both artificial lighting and traffic noise to feast on prey, though this behavior increases roadkill risk for the hunting birds themselves. The findings demonstrate streetlights fail to protect owl prey species from predation despite illumination presence.

Cattle Egrets Extend Feeding Activity Under Artificial Nighttime Lighting

Urban Ecology research documents diurnal cattle egrets shifting feeding behavior in response to artificial light at night attracting insect prey. Study findings reveal just under 8% of observed egrets modified their activity patterns to exploit newfound foraging opportunities, with some individuals extending feeding periods almost to 2 AM. Light at night attracted insects regardless of lighting type, which subsequently attracted egret populations to illuminated areas.

Artificial Light Disrupts Bird Reproductive Timing Across Multiple Species

Journal Wild review synthesizes how birds time reproduction across seasons and artificial light disruption of these signals. Researchers compiled findings from multiple bird groups including songbirds, raptors, and waterfowl, examining interactions between day length, hormones, temperature, food availability, and artificial light affecting breeding patterns. Tree sparrows exposed to 85 lux artificial light at night showed premature reproductive activation, while 150-300 lux exposure actually suppressed reproductive activation. Great tits experienced breeding success reduction when artificial light combined with warm springtime environments advanced egg-laying, creating phenological mismatches with peak food availability.

Invasive Prairie Species Outcompete Natives Under Artificial Lighting

Biological Conservation research demonstrates invasive prairie species including cheatgrass and smooth brome grow substantially larger under artificial light compared to native blue grama and western wheatgrass. Researchers conducted greenhouse experiments testing artificial light at night effects on competition between native and invasive prairie species over 13 weeks in late 2015 using 6 high-pressure sodium lamps at 5.5 lux with 400-700 nanometer spectrum running nightly from 9 PM to 6 AM. Native grasses under lit conditions showed declining carbon-to-nitrogen ratios as competition increased, suggesting stress responses involving increased nitrogen investment to maximize photosynthesis while producing thinner, more vulnerable leaves. Artificial light at night increased leaf toughness by nearly 60% overall compared to ambient conditions, though this benefit decreased somewhat as competition from invasive species increased.

Pollinator Diversity Declines Under Non-Warm Artificial Lighting

Asian Journal of Environment and Ecology review documents artificial light at night impacts on pollinators including moths, beetles, bats, and nocturnal bees. Research citations reveal non-warm lighting including green and white lights caused 62% decline in nocturnal site visitation, with long-term artificial light exposure reducing nighttime pollinator diversity and yields by pollination-dependent crops. The review synthesizes findings on foraging pattern changes, pollen transfer reduction, and pollinator disorientation under artificial lighting conditions.

Wind Turbine Lighting Attracts Bats and Increases Collision Risk

Journal of Applied Ecology research sampled 22 wind turbine locations including turbine bases and wooded edges approximately 250 meters distant, capturing around 29,000 bat passes from various bat guilds—groupings lumping bats by echolocation abilities rather than species classification. Study findings reveal bat activity consistently higher near turbines with constant red lighting compared to control sites without turbines, suggesting lights attract bats and increase collision risk potential. When turbines utilized aircraft detection lighting systems (ADLS), bat activity dropped to control site levels. Researchers stress that activity monitoring rather than mortality counting formed the study basis.

Bright Light Exposure Reduces Food Intake Through Neural Rewiring

Nature Neuroscience research demonstrates bright light exposure cuts food intake in mice and slows weight gain through visual circuit rewiring in brain structures. While this research did not specifically address artificial light at night, findings suggest bright artificial light can fundamentally alter neural pathways controlling feeding behavior, with potential implications for human responses to artificial lighting if results translate across species.

Artificial Light Exposure Correlates With Increased Obesity Risk

BMC Public Health meta-analysis examining whether artificial light at night exposure increases obesity risk analyzed 13 studies encompassing nearly 868,000 individuals across Asia, North America, and Europe. Most studies utilized generalized satellite-based light pollution measurements to assess nighttime light exposure at participants’ home addresses. Results found individuals living in areas with highest artificial light exposure faced 14% increased obesity risk and 7% increased overweight risk compared to those with lowest exposure levels. North American populations showed 21% obesity risk increase while Asian populations demonstrated 14% increase, with researchers attributing North America’s higher risk to more intense light pollution, extensive lighting infrastructure, and greater screen time exposure.

Nighttime Lighting Satisfaction Indirectly Reduces Anxiety Through Exercise Enjoyment

Acta Psychologica research examined whether nighttime lighting satisfaction affects mental health among individuals exercising after dark, surveying 403 residents in Chongqing, China between November and December 2023. The survey assessed participant satisfaction with experienced nighttime lighting, physical activity enjoyment levels, and anxiety and depression measurements. Study findings reveal lighting satisfaction positively associated with physical activity enjoyment and tended to lower anxiety, though lighting satisfaction didn’t directly reduce anxiety. Instead, satisfaction with lighting enhanced exercise enjoyment, which then reduced anxiety levels. Study limitations include sample restriction to one Chinese community and participants reporting rather low baseline anxiety and depression levels.

Light Pollution News: January Read Along

Before we begin today, I want to alert you, the listener, to something that past guest, Mark Baker, forwarded to me. His organization, the Soft Lights Foundation, has submitted a petition to the US Food and Drug Administration requesting that they investigate the impacts of LED light on individuals. If you are interested in learning more, you can head on over to our website, where we will have a link in this show’s Walk Through.

Let’s kick this show off with this story from Prensa Libre. The acclaimed astrophotographer and advocate, Sergio Montufar, recently debuted his Estrellas Ancestrales (Ancestral Stars) project, which features a series of Milky Way shots over important Mayan sites in the heart of Mexico City. The exhibit showcases the images in the archaeological and mythological context of Mayan culture.

There are things that you can see, and things that you can’t see, for which no amount of artificial light will hide. Take for instance, NASA’s SPHEREx mission. This mission, I might add, in a rare bid for good news from this country, just averted major budget cuts from the Trump White House. NASA only received a roughly 2% decrease in its budget.

For you at home who may not have heard of this, it’s a full sky, 3D mapping utilizing the low earth orbit telescope, the SPHEREx. The SPHEREx put out this impressive video of the Milky Way as seen by bandwidth.

In order to put this together, the observatory shot around 3600 photos per day taking a composite photo utilizing six image sensors. The camera shoots exclusively in infrared. Here’s something that I found really interesting, as the wavelengths lengthen, you see some objects disappear, and others become more refined. For instance, closer to visual, there are a couple of dark nebulas contrasted against the starry image, but as the wavelength stretches out to five microns, you see new dark nebulas become quite pronounced. They also released a full image of the infrared sky, and I think it’s one of the most stunning images that I’ve ever seen.

We have quite a bit of satellite news. First off, in case you missed it, Starlink does have competition, namely from a small but well backed satellite firm called AST Spacemobile. AST launched their BlueBird 6 satellites, which, when unfurled, extend to roughly 4x the size of their BlueBird 5 satellites. These new satellites come in at 2400 sq ft, or, per Jalopnik, the size of a three bedroom apartment. AST plans to put 50 more in orbit this year.

In a 2025 paper, the older BlueBird satellites shot across at a magnitude between 2 – 3.3. The assumption is that the new BlueBird 6, given its dramatic size increase, will be even brighter. AST stock jumped predictably with news of the first launch of the BlueBird 6. AST utilizes these satellites to extend cellular services back to Earth, including clients such as AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, and Bell.

Curiously, Starlink is worried that the larger satellites of AST may present a crash risk. And almost like clockwork, we have a story of a Starlink satellite crashing back down to Earth after it suffered what was termed a “minor explosion,” which sent it tumbling but left the satellite body and propulsion tank floating somewhere in what they called “trackable” orbit.

Starlink recently initiated a plan to reduce satellite orbits by 70 km to 480 km above the Earth’s surface. The purported reason is that the atmospheric density apparently is decreasing now that we’re coming past solar maximum.

Well, there was this study that came out in Nature, which forecasted how satellite megaconstellations will contaminate space telescope observations. You may not consider space satellites to sit in LEO, but many do. Obviously, the SPHEREx does, but so does Hubble at 540 km above the Earth. A new Chinese observatory, called Xuntian, is about to come on line at 540 km, and there’s the spice fueled, ARRAKIHS at 800 km (yes, ARRAKIHS is a real telescope; I guess the development team were big fans of Dune. And no, the telescope is not actually fueled by spice.).

The team simulated observations from each telescope, using orbital data from over 560,000 planned satellites filed with regulators. They validated their approach against actual Hubble data from 2018-2021, which showed 4.3% of images already contain satellite trails. Their projections revealed that if these constellations launch as planned, roughly 40% of Hubble’s images would show trails, while over 96% of exposures from SPHEREx, ARRAKIHS, and Xuntian would be affected. Xuntian could average 92 satellite trails per image! And that dirty Harkonnen telescope, ARRAKIHS, may see upwards of 69 trails per exposure! The team found that current mitigation efforts, like dark satellite coatings, barely help space telescopes and may actually worsen the problem due to orbital geometry.

More proof that light at night affects fish at night. This comes from the Science of the Total Environment. Researchers studied 136 zebrafish that were aged 8-12 months over a two month period in 2024. They split the group into a simulated natural light-dark group and a group that was exposed to 12 hours of daylight, then 12 hours of dim light. The dim light measured 3.3 lux, supposedly similar to urban light pollution. For you at home, the moon sits at around .1-.3 lux, so this would be a level 10x greater than the natural environment, but more akin to light trespass from distant street lights.

The study found that the fish exposed to the lighting could not sustain their typical diurnal rhythms. Researchers found that clock genes were muted by the artificial light exposure. This study did not assess the impact of the reduced clock gene expression.

Per the normal course of things, we have some bird items to go over. Before I dive into those studies, the British Ecological Society ran an article that looked at a presentation by Giuseppe Orlando during their December 17th meeting. It appears that streetlights are being leveraged by the tawny owl. In what is probably a shocking case of species on species murder, it appears that those streetlights don’t protect the owls’ victims. The owls exploited man-made environmental conditions, which also included traffic noise, to feast on prey. The downside is that this puts owls at risk for becoming roadkill.

I have another bird article, this time from Urban Ecology. Researchers studied the diurnal cattle egrets and how light at night affected their feeding activity. Light at night, regardless of which type, attracted insects, which attracted egrets. Overall, just under 8% of the egrets studied shifted their behavior to match the newfound opportunities, which included some extending their days almost to 2 am.

A review out of the journal, Wild, synthesized how birds time their reproduction across seasons and what happens when those signals are disrupted. The researchers compiled findings from studies on multiple bird groups, including songbirds, raptors, and waterfowl. They looked at how the length of daytime, hormones, temperature, food, and artificial light interact to affect breeding. They found that while day length is the primary cue, other factors can override or fine-tune that signal. For instance, tree sparrows exposed to artificial light at night (85 lux) showed premature reproductive activation. Then, when you take that even higher, to around 150-300 lux, artificial light actually suppressed reproductive activation. In great tits, the combination of artificial light and warm Springtime environments advanced egg-laying but created mismatches with peak food availability, thereby reducing breeding success.

Then there’s this out of Biological Conservation. Researchers set up a greenhouse experiment to test how artificial light at night affects competition between native prairie species and invasive prairie species. The researchers grew two native grasses, the blue grama and the western wheatgrass. They put these alongside two invasive species, including cheatgrass and smooth brome. Then they placed them under either normal lighting or simulated streetlight conditions for 13 weeks in late 2015. These lights included 6 high pressure sodium lamps at 5.5 lux with a light spectrum of 400-700 nanometers. These lights ran all night, from 9 pm to 6 am.

Their results found that both invasive species grew substantially larger under artificial light compared to the native species. Native grasses under lit conditions showed declining carbon-to-nitrogen ratios as competition increased, suggesting that they were stressed and investing more nitrogen to maximize photosynthesis while producing thinner and more vulnerable leaves. Separately, artificial light at night increased leaf toughness by nearly 60% overall compared to ambient conditions, though this benefit tended to decrease somewhat as competition from invasive species increased.

To word it more clearly, leaf toughness increased under artificial light at night, but reduced somewhat with higher competition. In a natural environment, toughness sits lower than under artificial light. And toughness is again degraded by increased competition.

A review in the Asian Journal of Environment and Ecology found that artificial light at night appears to have an impact on pollinators. The paper cited issues including changes to foraging patterns, a reduction of pollen transfer, and disorientation of pollinators. For you at home who may be wondering, just which pollinators the review found mentioned in research, this included moths, beetles, bats, and nocturnal bees.

Non-warm lighting, including green and white lights, caused a 62% decline in nocturnal site visitation. Long-term use of artificial light at night, unsurprisingly, reduced nighttime pollinator diversity and yields by pollination-dependent crops.

And lastly, to close out our ecology news this episode, researchers in a study from the Journal of Applied Ecology sampled 22 wind turbine locations, including the base of turbines and at wooded edges roughly 250 meters away. They captured around 29,000 bat passes from a variety of bats (mentioned in the study as guilds, which simply lumps bats together not by their species, but by their echolocation abilities). The findings showed that bat activity was consistently higher near turbines with constant red lighting compared to control sites without turbines, suggesting the lights attract bats and increase the potential for collision risk. When turbines used ADLS (Aircraft Detection Lighting System), which means that the red lights only come on when aircraft are detected nearby, bat activity dropped back down to that of the control sites. I want to stress that the researchers did not count deaths, but rather activity.

Since we’re talking about bats, I came across this nice piece in the Independent. Have any of you ever wanted to attract bats to your garden? Do any of you have a garden? I guess that should have been the first question! Well, here’s the recipe they suggest: Plant native plants. Select plants that attract insects at night. Don’t get rid of those log piles or leaves. Add a water feature. And, of course, most importantly to you at home, keep it dark!

How about some bright light? According to Nature Neuroscience, bright light exposure cut back on the food intake of mice, which, of course, slowed weight gain. I want to be clear that this article was not specifically talking about artificial light at night, but if it holds true for humans, it shows how bright artificial light can rewire the brain. And on that thought, artificial light at night probably isn’t going to make you thinner, unless it makes you want to stop eating, of course.

A meta-analysis out of BMC Public Health examined whether exposure to artificial light at night increases obesity risk. The team analyzed 13 studies encompassing nearly 868,000 folks across Asia, North America, and Europe. Most studies utilized a generalized measurement of light pollution from satellite data to assess nighttime light exposure of participants’ home addresses. Their results found that individuals living in areas deemed to have the highest artificial light exposure faced a 14% increased risk of obesity and a 7% increased risk of being overweight compared to those with the lowest exposure. Studies found that North America showed a 21% obesity risk increase, while Asian populations demonstrated a 14% increase. Researchers attributed North America’s higher risk to more intense light pollution, extensive lighting infrastructure, and greater screen time.

A study out of Acta Psychologica looked at whether satisfaction with nighttime lighting affects mental health among folks who exercise after dark. The researchers surveyed 403 residents in Chongqing, China, between November and December of 2023. The survey asked how satisfied participants were with the nighttime lighting they experienced; how much they enjoyed their physical activity; and what their levels of anxiety and depression were.

The team found that feelings around lighting were positively associated with their physical activity enjoyment and tended to lower anxiety. However, researchers found that lighting satisfaction didn’t directly reduce anxiety. Instead, satisfaction with lighting made folks enjoy their exercise more, and it was that enjoyment that ended up reducing anxiety. This study did have some limitations, most notably, that its sample was limited to one community in China, and participants reported rather low anxiety and depression levels to begin with.