Hawaii's night sky appeared to be covered with what appeared to be a
curtain of brilliant green lasers, invoking images of extraterrestrial life
amid the stars.
However, the strange lasers are really employed to measure Earthly
characteristics. On Saturday, January 28, the "strange" blazing lasers were
photographed by the Asahi Star Camera of the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea
against a foggy night sky.
The crew said on YouTube, "Last night (early am 2023-1-28 HST) was foggy on
Maunakea." "However, the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera recorded a really
intriguing scene: green laser beams shooting out of the sky! Even though it
just lasted a second or less, our attentive viewers did not miss the
event!
The researchers said in the YouTube video's commentary that viewers
afterwards claimed the lights were produced by a remote-sensing laser (an
altimeter named ATLAS) from the satellite ICESat-2/43613.
According to a post on Facebook by the New Scientist, the altimeter can
"measure glacier height, sea ice, forests, lakes, and more, and lets
scientists track shifting ice sheets in Arctic and Antarctica
regions."
Another unsettling apparition was observed in the night sky above Hawaii
earlier in January. According to an earlier McClatchy News story, the launch
of a new Space X satellite was the origin of a mystery blue light in the
form of a vortex that was hovering among the stars.
