2026

US approval for Reflect Orbital’s plan to put reflecting satellites into orbit in order to reflect light from the sun into Earth has reignited a heated debate among astronomers, space scientists and ecologists. The company says it has received more than 260,000 inquiries from customers wanting redirected sunlight for energy, disaster relief, agriculture, defence and city lighting. Researchers warn that if the project grows from a few demonstrators to a constellation of tens of thousands, the consequences for ground- and space-based astronomy, orbital safety and nocturnal ecosystems could be severe.

In a major step toward understanding how the first supermassive black holes and galaxies formed, the Euclid Consortium reports the discovery of 31 previously unknown quasars at redshifts 6.6–7.8, including the most distant quasar known to date. These objects shine from when the Universe was only around 5% of its current age!

On 23 March 2025, Euclid’s VIS camera produced a 4.8-square-degree mosaic that images more than 60 million stars in unprecedented detail — giving astronomers the resolution and sky coverage needed to measure the masses of cold worlds outside the Solar System.

The mission enters its critical design phase ahead of a 2030 launch.

The Kavli Prize in Astrophysics 2026 is awarded to Vasily Belokurov (University of Cambridge), Amina Helmi (University of Groningen) and Rodrigo Ibata (University of Strasbourg) “for uncovering the fossil evidence of past mergers proving that the Milky Way galaxy was built through hierarchical accretion.” Their work shows that our Galaxy grew by repeatedly merging with and consuming smaller galaxies, leaving streams that astronomers can now read as a cosmic fossil record.

How did the universe evolve from the Big Bang to today — and why is its expansion accelerating? Professor of Cosmology David Fonseca Mota and researcher Farbod Hassani at the University of Oslo have received NOK 40 million from the Research Council to investigate these questions.