Meteor shower in the skies of northern America have made news every year. But no longer. The world's first artificial meteor shower has been confirmed to shimmer in the skies of Japan in 2019. The flamboyant display of this man-made natural phenomenon will come with shooting stars in the eastern skies.
ALE, a Japanese space entertainment company is gearing up for the first-ever faux meteor shower exhibition to take place in Hiroshima in 2019. The company will be deploying a satellite to space specifically designed to showcase a glorious array of meteors and shooting stars.
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The satellite is said to emit what the company described as pellets that will turn into a beautiful mess of colors resembling the shooting stars, which will burst into flames once they cross the Earth's firmament.
Unlike the heaven-sent meteors, these pellets erupt brighter and longer, approximately around 5 to 10 seconds each. They will be in sight for 100 kilometers in each direction.
By 2018, ALE will start sending the satellite carrying about 300 to 400 meteor pellets on Earth's orbit 310 miles above Australia, the ideal position for the satellite to spit out the pellets towards Hiroshima. The meteor pellets will travel 37 miles in 15 minutes above Setoguchi in Okayama before they start to burst into a meteor shower.
According to RocketNews24, the company chose Hiroshima as the test site for its picture-perfect landscape, popularity and high chances of clear skies.
The project was first conceived in 2015 with the aim to promote science through entertainment. This future stunning pyrotechnic display has been supported by educational institutions in Japan such as Tokyo Metropolitan University and Tohoku University, as well as private companies like JAL and FamilyMart.
"These days people are usually looking down at their smartphones," says ALE founder Lena Okajima. "I want to make people look upwards again."
Once the display succeeds, man-made meteor shower could also be used at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Below is a promotional video of the ALE's meteor shower project:
