Jakarta –
The sky of Hawaii was visited by a strange phenomenon on January 28. Unusual events make the sky appear decorated with dots of green light descending from the sky. This scene is reminiscent of the very iconic setting of The Matrix. Actually, what is it?
This strange sight was apparently caused by the presence of a NASA satellite that was making observations. Quoted from IFL Science, the culprit is the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 or ICESat-2.
The science work that these satellites do is amazing. ICESat-2 can fire 10,000 lasers per second, with about 20 trillion photons leaving the spacecraft. About a dozen of them will return, but that’s enough to measure the height of permafrost, glaciers and sea ice in great detail.
ICESat-2 can also measure the height of forests, lakes, urban areas and cloud cover. And it was this part of the mission that became the focus of the visible laser in the sky over Maunakea, Hawaii. ICESat-2 emits a laser at 532 nanometers, that is the blue tip on the green part of visible light.
These images and video were taken by the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera on the Subaru telescope located in Maunakea. The presence of this telescope at the top of the hill, and the ongoing construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, is even more controversial.
Pollution from the current observatory, failures in decommissioning, mismanagement of the site, and legal issues are some of the issues that Native Hawaiians have repeatedly complained about the development.
Watch Video “4 Sky Phenomena That Will Happen in December 2022“
(rns/rns)
