Meteor showers create a breathtaking view for skygazers around the world, however, at times the weather doesn’t let them properly exhibit their beauty. For this, Japan launched a satellite to create artificial meteor showers that will be better than the natural ones.
Earlier today, Japanese firm Astro Live Experience (ALE) launched a satellite equipped for producing the first ever artificial meteor shower. The satellite is set to put up a mesmerizing show in 2020 over an area near Hiroshima where it will be visible despite the weather and the pollution.
As captioned: ‘Shooting stars. On demand. Let the sky become your canvas’, the artificial ‘stars’ will be shot on demand. They will travel more slowly and glow brightly and longer than a natural meteor shower with enough brightness to be seen over cities with heavy light pollution such as Tokyo.
China to send ‘artificial moon’ to space as replacement to streetlights
The man-made meteor shower will be observable by up to six million people over an area of 200km wide. The satellite will fire off tiny pellets a centimeter in diameter made up of non-toxic materials. The particles will generate a range of bright colors as they heat up during reentry into the atmosphere, as per CNET.
The firm informed that after this first satellite, a second one is also in its final stage assembly at present and will be launched around summer of 2019.