Shooting Stars on Demand from this Japanese Startup

Japanese company ALE is a space startup that’s reaching for the stars. In spring 2020, it plans to create its first artificial meteor shower over Hiroshima, a city which offers suitable weather conditions and a good geographical location.

To achieve this, ALE (short for Astro Live Experiences) will set two micro-satellites filled with tiny pellets (400 in total) into orbit in 2019. Once in position, they will be able to release these pellets at high speed so they burn up as they enter the atmosphere. This phenomenon will ’emit bright light through plasma emission’,the company website claims, just like real shooting stars. The company hopes that the show in Hiroshima will act as a showcase for the whole world. Once the reserve of artificial stars has been dispersed into space, they can be ‘delivered’ to anywhere in the world. Behind this project is Lena Okajima, who has a PhD in astronomy from the University of Tokyo and is founder of the startup. Beyond simply putting on a show, however, ALE also aims to support scientific advances. If they’re going to create shooting stars, they might as well study them too.