(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The green lasers spotted last month beaming over the Hawaiin Islands were likely from a Chinese satellite, according to astronomers.
On January 28, a live stream camera mounted on top of the Subaru Telescope in Maunakea, Hawaii captured an image of the lasers flashing for a few seconds.
Initially, the green beams were believed to be from a NASA altimeter satellite, ICESat-2. However, on February 6, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan issued a correction, noting that NASA scientists conducted a trajectory simulation of the satellites that have a similar instrument and concluded that the most likely culprit was an ACDL instrument aboard China’s Daqi-1/AEMS satellite.
Roy Gal from the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy told The Hill that the instrument causing the beams could have been for measuring something in the atmosphere like pollutants. Gal believes the Daqi-1/AEMS satellite is an “environmental measurement satellite.”
Ray L’Heureux, a former Marine Forces Pacific chief of staff, told The Hill that since China is one of the biggest polluters on the planet, it is unlikely it would be collecting environmental data like pollution “on this side of the Pacific.”
Neither Gal nor L’Heureaux believes that the Chinese satellite is a spy satellite.
Gal told The Hill that the Daqi-1/AEMS satellite, like many US satellites, is just orbiting the Earth on a “known orbit” and does not pose any risk to Hawaii.
NASA’s ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2) was first launched in 2018. According to CNET, the satellite shoots thousands of lasers at the Earth to measure the surface, assisting scientists in tracking changes in sea ice, glaciers, forests, and ice sheets. Like the Chinese satellite, the laser pulses from ICESat-2 are bright green, which is probably why astronomers initially suspected it was the culprit of the January 28 event.
In April 2021, the Subaru Telescope also captured images of a a mysterious flying “whirlpool” in the night sky that was caused by a rocket launched by SpaceX.
