Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

Testing the orbital mechanics of giant mirrors

Giant mirrors in space have been a staple of science fiction for decades. But so far, there's been very little work looking at the actual physics behind the concept—possibly because we're still so far from making them ourselves. Still, they could potentially serve as a passive technosignature if we...

Testing the orbital mechanics of giant mirrors
Image: Phys.org
Giant mirrors in space have been a staple of science fiction for decades. But so far, there's been very little work looking at the actual physics behind the concept—possibly because we're still so far from making them ourselves. Still, they could potentially serve as a passive technosignature if we manage to find one. In order to do that, though, we have to understand what we're looking for. That is the purpose of a new paper, available as a preprint on arXiv, by Shauna Sallmen of the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and Eric Korpela of UC Berkeley.

Originally published at Phys.org

The Morning Briefing

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Be the first to receive the latest news, market analysis and updates — delivered straight to your inbox.