Japanese Astronomer Spots NASA's Mysterious Green Lasers in Action

Japanese astronomer Daichi Fujii captured footage of three green lasers streaking across the sky, which he later identified as coming from NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2). The satellite, which measures the height of Earth's surfaces, fires lasers 10,000 times per second. The lasers were visible due to unique atmospheric conditions that scattered the light enough to make it visible to Fujii's cameras. This is the first time the team has seen footage of the instrument's lasers pulsing through the sky.