Japan plans to make artificial meteor shower opening the 2020 Olympics

Japan intends to make artificial meteor shower instead of fireworks during the 2020 Summer Olympic opening ceremony.

According to Science Alert, Japanese company Star-ALE is bidding this project. Instead of fireworks, the audience will see hundreds of small fireballs falling from the sky of Tokyo.

If Star-ALE succeeds, this artificial meteor shower can be seen not only in Tokyo but also outside the city within 100km.

Star-ALE will do this by launching satellites into orbit with special 500–1000 "source particles" . These particles carry chemicals that can emit different colors when ignited. They will burn when they fall into the Earth's atmosphere, forming a scene like meteor shower for the audience to admire from the ground.

Instead of fireworks, the audience will see hundreds of small fireballs falling from the sky of Tokyo.

However, the cost of this project is quite expensive. According to the Core77 website, the production cost for each seed source is $ 8,100, excluding the cost of satellite launch.

Star-ALE tested source particles in the laboratory, using vacuum and hot air to simulate the conditions that occur when particles fall into the Earth's atmosphere. In the experiment, light particles could be seen under the night sky, even under the sky of a polluted city like Tokyo.

The falling speed of particles is also appreciated.

"Our meteor falls slowly and longer than natural supernova," Star-ALE company representative said. "This will help many people see this scene for a longer time."

Star-ALE plans to launch the first meteor shower device prototype in the second half of 2016 and hopes to actually test it in 2018.