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A city in China may soon have a second moon in its evening sky.
Credit: Shutterstock
The moonlit skies over the Chinese city of Chengdu may soon benefit from a second moon.
City officials recently announced plans to build an artificial moon and suspend it over the capital of Sichuan Province by 2020, the Chinese Daily News website reported (AOP). ).
The illuminated orb is intended to complement the existing moonlight of the Earth and will be eight times brighter than the natural satellite Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology (CASC) – the main contractor for the Chinese space program – said PDO. [Photos: Mysterious Objects Spotted on the Moon]
In fact, the artificial moonlight should save money by eliminating the need for streetlights, Chunfeng added. The new moon will be able to illuminate an area up to 80 km in diameter, according to AOP.
Although the artificial moon illuminates only Chengdu, the glowing ball will be visible across China and even abroad, Asia Times said. The real moon, of course, can usually be seen from anywhere on Earth. But little is known about the height, size, and true brightness of the proposed artificial moon – factors that could affect its visibility for remote observers.
It is also unknown if the project got official support from the Chengdu city or the federal government, The Guardian reported.
This is not the first time that a country is trying to outclass the moon. A similar project was unveiled by Russia in the 1990s, with the launch of a solar reflection system – a "spatial mirror" – intended to produce light "equivalent to three to five full moons" covering a area of about 5 km diameter, the New York Times reported in 1993.
According to The Guardian, another Russian attempt to launch a space mirror in 1999 has fizzled out.
"A twilight glow"
Kang Weimin, director of the Institute of Optics at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, said the Chinese artificial moon would interfere with astronomical observations or disrupt the nocturnal activities of active animals at night. like a glow, "reported AOP.
However, research has shown that many animals are very sensitive to the light and phases of the moon. For example, nocturnal owls communicate with each other via the display of white throat feathers. Scientists discovered that this activity increased during the full moon, when the moonlight was the brightest.
And in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, hundreds of coral species simultaneously release their eggs and sperm during an annual mass spawn related to moonlight level.
The size and lighting technology of the Chengdu artificial moon are not yet available. It is therefore difficult to determine whether the brightness of the proposed artificial satellite would be intense enough to interfere with local wildlife activities. In addition, while the company calls it a "satellite", which suggests that it will be launched into a geostationary orbit – in which the orbit surrounds the Earth above the equator – no detail has been published on how the company plans to deploy the "artificial moon."
Originally published on live science.
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