Japanese Scientist Aims to Launch Artificial Shooting Stars

GEORGE TOWN (Penang) , Feb 23 (Bernama) -- The shooting star phenomenon, one of the world's most beautiful natural wonders, has inspired Japanese scientist Lena Okajima to launch thousands of artificial meteors at Earth. Okajima, who holds a doctorate in astronomy, says their company, ALE Co Ltd (ALE) intends to launch a micro satellite which can eject shooting stars at exactly the right time and place to put on a celestial show. The chief executive officer said natural shooting stars occurred when a small particle in space entered the atmosphere and burned brightly through a process called 'plasma emission' and ALE created shooting stars on demand by artificially recreating the process with the help of satellite. "We will send a satellite loaded with about 500 artificial shooting star particles to sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth and give the satellite a signal to discharge the particles using a specifically designed device on board. "The particles that have been released from the satellite travel about one third of the way around the Earth and enter the atmosphere, burning along the way and becoming shooting stars visible to the naked eye," she told reporters here Wednesday. Okajima was met at a lecture presentation, 'Science Through Entertainment with Shooting Stars on Demand', organised by the Consulate-General of Japan in Penang and the University of Science Malaysia's (USM) Astronomy Club and School of Aerospace here in USM Wednesday. "Our shooting stars come in different colours and volumes, making multi-coloured meteor showers a reality. "We are able to do this by loading the satellite with shooting star particles made up of different materials that emit various colours during flame reaction," she said, adding the shooting stars could be seen within a radius of up to 200km. Okajima said the artificial shooting stars could be used as a grand opening or finale at festival celebrations, commercial events or any occasions that called for fireworks of a more astronomical quality. It is learnt this new technology would be showcased at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan and Okajima hopes the meteor showers can perhaps, inspire the next generation of scientists. -- BERNAMA