A satellite caused an alert in the United States in recent days after lasers flashe green light over the Hawaiian Islands. The news came amid tensions over flying objects shot down by the US military in Alaska. Northern California and Canada. In this case. The craft would not be aimed at espionage or pose a risk to the public, at least in the view of astronomers.
It was a camera of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea that captured the images, according to Khon 2, a local media in Hawaii. The incident was recorde on January 28. Before the allege Chinese spy balloon was detected for the first time in North American territory. So it would not be relate to that event.
The curious green laser effect that a Chinese satellite generate in the sky over Hawaii
The lasers flashed their light for only a few seconds, so it was initially assumed that they were from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) altimeter satellite. However, the NAOJ said on 6 February that NASA scientists discovered the reality: “They simulated the trajectory of satellites that have a similar instrument and found a more likely candidate as the ACDL instrument on China’s Daqi-1/AEMS satellite,” the statement said.
It was apparently a Chinese satellite used to monitor pollution levels and other similar effects. “It has a lot of different instruments on it… Some kind of topographic mapping or they’re also used to measure things in the Earth’s atmosphere and I think that’s what it is, an environmental measurement satellite,” Roy Gal, a researcher at the University of Hawaii’s Astronomy Institute, was quoted as saying.
The curious green laser effect that a Chinese satellite generate in the sky over Hawaii
However, Ray L’Heureux, a former chief of staff of Marine Forces Pacific, thought it might be something else: “I’m not sure and this is my opinion: why the Chinese, who are probably some of the most prolific polluters on the planet, would be collecting data on pollutants on this side of the Pacific,” he doubte.
Finally, while it is not certain whether it was actually a pollution-measuring satellite, it is known that it is not a spying satellite. “The US has satellites to do the same thing, so in this case, despite all the fuss, well deserved fuss, about Chinese spy satellites and other devices, this one is just orbiting the Earth and has a known orbit,” Gal said.
Is the laser related to the Chinese balloon?
On the other hand, experts added that the green lasers do not pose a danger and are not related to the spy balloon that was shot down in South Carolina. In that sense, Gal assured that people in the US and around the world can rest assured.