A Japanese firm creates on-demand meteor showers

A Japanese startup is betting that tiny satellite-driven meteor showers offer high-end entertainment

Spotted: On 17th January, Japanese space startup, Astro Live Experiences (ALE), launched its first microsatellite, designed to create artificial meteors. Each microsatellite will launch 400 tiny particle balls, each about a centimetre in size. These will ignite as they enter the atmosphere, like hundreds of shooting stars. They are expected to burn more slowly than nature’s own meteor shows, providing a customised light show for ALE’s clients. The first meteor show is scheduled to light up over Hiroshima in the spring of 2020.