Off The News: Green space lasers over Hawaii

The “Chinese spy balloon” that was spotted over Alaska and sensitive areas of the U.S. mainland before being shot down into the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4 only added to growing tensions between the U.S. and China.

What to make, then, of “a row of green lasers beaming down from space like a picket fence … above Hawaii island,” as the Star-Advertiser’s Tim Hurley described it? A Japanese observatory camera attached to the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea captured the fleeting image on Jan. 28.

Don’t panic, NASA says: Its analysis, released Feb. 6, concludes the lasers likely emanated from a Chinese scientific satellite, which monitors the atmosphere. No spycraft, in this case.