東京奧運會開幕式上會有一場人造流星雨!

Japan has a plan to make its Olympics opening ceremony unlike any other.

日本計劃讓東京奧運會開幕式與衆不同。

A start-up, called Star-ALE, is designing a man-made meteor shower that could be seen over Tokyo during the 2020 games.

初創公司Star-ALE正在設計2020年奧運會期間可以在東京觀賞的一場人工流星雨。

If all goes to plan, the pyrotechnics (煙火表演) show, dubbed "Sky Canvas", could been seen all over Tokyo and have an audience of 30m people.

如果一切按計劃進行，屆時3000萬人可以在東京全境觀賞這場名爲"天空畫布"的煙花秀。

'A natural shooting star occurs when a particle in space, with a size of a few millimeters, enters the atmosphere and burns brightly through a process called plasma emission,' the company writes on its website. 'Our goal is to artificially recreate this process.'

該公司在其官網上寫道：“一顆自然的流星是因爲太空中的小型物體墜入地球大氣並摩擦燃燒而形成的。我們的目標就是要通過人工的方式重現這一過程。”

Star-ALE will send a microsatellite into space loaded with between 500 and 1,000 combustible pellets.

Star-ALE公司將向太空發射一顆搭載500至1000個可燃球的微衛星。

These pellets will be made from various metals and elements so that they burn with different colors. The pellets will ignite at an altitude of between 35 to 50 miles above Earth.

這些可燃球由各種金屬等材料製成，因此燃燒時可以發出不同顏色的光。可燃球將在距離地表35至50英里的高空燃燒。

'In the 'Sky Canvas Project,' numerous source particles can be continuously emitted, which allows us to create not only a single shooting star, but a real meteor shower,' Star-ALE says.

Star-ALE公司表示：“在Sky Canvas計劃中,大量燃燒物是可以持續發光的,因此這就允許我們創造出不只是單個的流星墜落,而是真正的一場流星雨展出。”

Star-ALE is currently testing the pellets in a vacuum chamber that exposes them to supersonic hot gases.

目前,Star-ALE正在利用真空壓力艙和超音速熱氣體測試不同材料的金屬球燃燒效果。