The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan posted video online of a string of lights in the sky filmed by a camera atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain on January 28.
The organisation’s researchers said Nasa’s ICESAT-2 satellite’s topographic laser, used to monitor sea ice and forests, was responsible for the light show.
But NOAJ added a correction to its YouTube post saying their satellite wasn’t the cause of lasers over Hawaii, Vice noted this week. Rather, “the most likely candidate,” according to the updated video, was a Chinese Daqi-1/AEMS satellite launched last year.
Japan has ‘legal right’ to destroy a foreign balloon amid past sightings probe
It’s used to track nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone, as well as carbon dioxide” the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said in a 2021 press release.
The otherwise innocuous update took on a life of its own online in light of a pair of airships being shot out of the sky by F-22s in the past week. One of those objects was a balloon being used by China to spy on the US, Pentagon officials said. Chinese officials claimed it was a weather balloon.The Biden administration said it was designed to intercept communication on the ground while it floated 60,000 feet over US airspace during its trip from Montana to the east coast.
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Beijing insists ‘balloon does not belong to America’ as US recovers wreckage from sea
Beijing insists ‘balloon does not belong to America’ as US recovers wreckage from sea
Chinese defence ministry refused a phone call from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to clear the air after an F-22 downed the balloon on Sunday.
On Friday, an F-22 shot down a yet-to-be-identified vessel flying 40,000 feet over Alaska. Its origin and purpose are unclear. US officials said the object posed a potential threat to civilian aircraft.
