The coveted Oscar trophy is coated in the same gold that helps telescopes glimpse distant galaxies, ensuring that the hard-earned prize never loses its shine, according to NASA. US-based Epner Technology, which has been working with NASA since the 1970s and improved its electroplating technique doing aerospace work in the 1990s, claims that its gold would never flake off.

In 2016, Epner¿s reputation for durable and brilliant gold coatings, earned it a new client - the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more than three decades, a trophy manufacturer had been casting the Oscars in a tin alloy and then plated them with gold. They shone, but the coating eventually wore off. Epner uses an electroplating process it calls LaserGold. The resulting coating was already harder and more reflective than vapour-deposited gold, but both attributes have been further improved through the company's collaboration with NASA.