Astronomers now say the green laser beams that startled observers last month over Hawaii originated from a Chinese satellite.
It was Jan. 30 when the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) posted online the surprising news. The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii recorded the green laser lights in a cloudy sky.
Of course, there was widespread speculation in some circles that the lights came from UFOs, though this possibility was largely dismissed by the scientific community.
It was first thought that the lights were produced by a NASA remote-sensing altimeter satellite known as ICESAT-2/43613. This spacecraft is NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2.
It measures the surface of the Earth by shooting lasers down.
However, officials, last week issued a correction of the original theory. NASA scientists performed a simulation and determined that the most likely origin of the mysterious green beams was the Chinese Daqi-1/AEMS satellite.
Astronomers say a Chinese satellite has been caught on video beaming down green lasers over the Hawaiian Islands.https://t.co/uZHRRzjbBv
— KGET 17 News (@KGETnews) February 13, 2023
The Subaru staff apologized for any confusion, though the original mistaken hypothesis was easily explained. The NASA satellite, which was launched in 2018, uses green lasers to shoot pulses to the surface to monitor changes in ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, and forests.
The Daqi-1, however, utilized similar instrumentation and its flight path matched the origin point of the green beams. Roy Gal of the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy explained that the Chinese satellite’s beams are used to measure pollutants, “among other things.”
Gal added that the U.S. has its own satellites performing the same function.
It does, however, beg the obvious question of why this technology is being utilized over U.S. territory by the Chinese state. Of what interest are the topographical features of the Hawaiian islands to Beijing?
Tensions have risen sharply since the detection and eventual downing of the infamous Chinese spy balloon over North America. The U.S. appears to be shooting down some strange craft virtually daily, and this is raising many more questions than answers.
Unless the Chinese communists are bent on provocation — and that certainly is possible — it is advisable that any scheduled flyovers of the U.S. for the foreseeable future be diverted.
