Weather News

Man-made meteor showers could become a reality

Ben Domensino, Friday January 18, 2019 - 12:09 AEDT

Artificial meteor showers could soon be streaking across our sky thanks to a self-proclaimed 'space entertainment' company, which launched a satellite into space this week.

A Japanese company called Astro Live Experiences, or ALE, sent a satellite into space on Thursday, which they plan on using to create artificial meteor showers.

The project, which ALE claims would be the world's first man-made meteor shower, aims to eject custom-made particles from a satellite while it orbits Earth at an altitude of about 400km.

Each particle is roughly 1cm in size and is expected to create a streak of light as it burns up while entering Earth's atmosphere. ALE predicts the particles should disintegrate before reaching 60km elevation and won't reach the ground.

This week's satellite launch was one of the first major steps in the project, with the company hoping to create their first artificial meteor shower over Japan during spring of 2020.

Image: A naturally occurring meteor. Credit - NASA/Bill Ingalls

Meteor showers occur naturally when small rocks, dust or ice from space enter Earth&'s atmosphere and burn up, creating a streak of bright light.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2019

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Dubai deluge: a year's rainfall in a day

16:41 AEST Flights have been unable to land or take off from flooded runways, chunks of major roads have eroded away, while motorists have been trapped on inundated freeways as rare heavy rainfall lashed Dubai.