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A city in China plans to launch an 'artificial moon' that will illuminate the sky about fifty kilometers.
According to the People's Daily, the so-called illumination satellite to be deployed in Chengdu city, in the south-west of the country, would be eight times brighter than the real moon and project a "twilight-like glow" " In the region.
Officials have published little details about the project, but claim that this idea is inspired by a French artist who imagined a necklace of mirrors hanging over the Earth.
A city in China plans to launch an 'artificial moon' that will illuminate the sky about fifty kilometers. The so-called lighting satellite to be deployed on Chengdu city, in the southwest of the country, in 2020, would be eight times brighter than the real moon. Photo file
Wu Chunfend, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology, revealed the project at an event held in the city on Oct. 10, reported People's Daily.
It will complete the moon to make Chengu's night sky brighter when it is launched in 2020, potentially replacing conventional street lighting.
The artificial moon can be controlled to illuminate an area between 10 and 80 km wide.
While this may sound implausible, Wu says the technology has been running for years and has now "matured" to become operational.
It remains to be seen if the plan will eventually materialize.
The artificial moon in Chengdu has already been criticized by skeptics and concerned citizens who say the light will have adverse effects on animals and astronomical observation, says People's Daily.
But according to Kang Weimin, director of the Institute of Optics, School of Aerospace, Harbin Institute of Technology, the light will be a "glow like twilight."
This is not the first time humans have attempted to throw an object reflecting light into the sky – but in the past, such plans have largely failed.
Officials have published little details about the project, but claim that this idea is inspired by a French artist who imagined a necklace of mirrors hanging over the Earth. Photo file
HOW HAS THE SHAPE OF THE MOON?
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after the Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars, billions of years ago.
This is called the hypothesis of the giant impact.
The theory suggests that the moon is composed of debris left after a collision between our planet and a body, about 4.5 billion years ago.
The colliding body sometimes calls Theia, after the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the moon.
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after the Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars, billions of years ago. This is called the giant impact hypothesis.
But a mystery persisted, revealed by the rocks that the Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon: Why are the moon and the earth so similar in their composition?
Several different theories have emerged over the years to explain the similar fingerprints of the Earth and the Moon.
Perhaps the impact has created a huge cloud of debris that has thoroughly mixed with the Earth and then condensed to form the Moon.
Or Theia could have, by coincidence, chemically resembled a young Earth.
A third possibility is that the moon is formed from earthen material rather than Theia, although this would have been a very unusual type of impact.
Last year, for example, a Russian team attempted to deploy what was to be "the brightest object in the night sky after the moon".
The Mayak satellite was launched from the Baikonur Spaceport on July 14, 2017 aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket despite hostile reactions, particularly from astronomers who emphasized the importance of maintaining the right. darkness in the night sky.
In the weeks following its launch, amateur astronomers and scientists following it spotted what they thought was the spacecraft.
But in August of the same year, the team behind the project revealed that the solar reflector was not deploying into orbit.
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