Meteor showers are one of the most beautiful astronomical phenomena we can experience, but they can also be fickle. A Japanese company is currently planning to put on an on-demand artificial shooting star show at the Sky Canvas project. There may also be scientific advantages.
What we commonly call shooting stars are actually blobs of rock from outer space burning in the Earth’s atmosphere. It can take the form of a single random nighttime streak, or an epic show that lasts for hours during the peak of a meteor shower as the Earth passes the comet’s dusty trail.
Meteor showers are amazing, but painful to experience. I want the darkest sky possible. That means it’s best viewed between the depths of the night, between 2am and 4am, and as far away from the city as possible. Still, you’re at the mercy of the weather and whether or not a meteor makes you want to show off that night.
Japanese space startup ALE Co plans to make meteor showers a little more visible. The Sky Canvas project drops a 1 cm (0.4 inch) wide sphere of material from a satellite. This sphere mimics a shooting star by burning out and glowing in the atmosphere.
According to the company, the system will allow these man-made meteor shows to be viewed on demand anywhere on Earth from an area spanning 100 kilometers (62 miles) in each direction. Fake meteors travel slower and shine longer than natural meteors, so even the slowest eyes can see the sights.
But what.
ALE has been talking about doing this for over a decade now, but it really seems to be picking up steam lately. Granted permission and approval, her two orb-filled satellites launched in 2019 appear to be already orbiting the Earth. Another is scheduled for next year before the first commercial show takes place in 2025. As part of the preparations, two years after the rise and fall of Discord servers and digital collectibles, a line of “VIP Pass” NFTs was also launched.
The company also sidestepped some of the main concerns people no doubt have about the idea. The particles are too small to reach the earth and are made of materials similar to those of natural meteorites, so they are sure to burn up. No, it will not hit planes or other aircraft. Dropped from a great height. The impact on the environment and astronomical observations should be minimized. Before you rush to the comments section, rest assured that they are useless as weapons for Bond villains.
As an additional justification, ALE says man-made meteors will help teach scientists about the mesosphere, the region of the Earth’s atmosphere where they burn up. Too high for weather balloons and aircraft, too low for satellites, and little understood, scientists are studying the interactions of meteorites to better understand the mesosphere and improve climate models. can do.
The idea of creating a new kind of light show in the sky is interesting. Everyone loves fireworks displays, but they can be pretty loud, dangerous, expensive, and unfriendly to the environment. Drone shows are gaining momentum and artificial meteor showers could be next level.
But what.
But of course questions remain. Launching things into orbit is notoriously expensive and dirty, and restocking satellites with new ammunition is no easy task. You don’t see them in the sky above the city, even if they mean
And of course half the charm of watching a meteor shower because It’s hard to do Going out on a pole in the middle of the night and staring intently at the sky for rare fireballs from outer space is an experience like no other. , I’m sure some company is working on it, but they wouldn’t feel like magic.
Either way, we’ll soon see if artificial meteor showers are a viable entertainment option.
Source: Sky Canvas via PR Newswire
