Video of green lights in Hawaii sky predates Maui wildfires by six months | Fact check
The claim: Video of green lights in the sky is evidence Maui fires were caused by a directed energy weapon
An Aug. 14 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows vertical lines of green light flashing across the night sky.
"Before Wildfire started in Hawaii," reads text above the video.
The video's caption features a series of hashtags, including "#DEWs," "#DirectEnergyWeapons" and "#LaserWeapons."
The video was liked more than 1,000 times in 10 days.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Our rating: False
The video shows lights from a satellite recorded by an ultra-sensitive camera installed near the summit of the highest peak on Hawaii's Big Island. It was posted online more than six months before the Maui fires.
Video of lights from Chinese satellite predates Maui fires by six months
At least 115 people died in wildfires that consumed parts of Maui, the second largest of the Hawaiian islands, starting Aug. 8. The death toll is still expected to climb as emergency workers continue to look for human remains among the debris in what has become one of the deadliest U.S. fires in history.
The exact cause of the fires hasn't been determined, but officials have pointed to several factors that likely played a role, including strong winds, dry vegetation and low humidity.
The Instagram video, though, has no connection to the fires. It was recorded and uploaded to YouTube on Jan. 28, more than six months before the fires, by an account run by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
The observatory operates the Subaru Telescope, which sits at the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest peak on Hawaii's Big Island.
Fact check: No, Maui fires not linked to energy weapons, AI, smart cities, weather modification
A February blog post on the telescope's website says, "The laser lights were most likely from (Daqi-1), a Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite" that was launched in 2022.
The post also explains the video was captured by an "ultra-sensitive" camera that recorded the "faint and transitory laser lights, which are invisible to the naked eye."
There is no evidence that directed energy weapons played any role in starting the wildfires in Maui. Multiple federal and state officials previously told Paste BN that such claims are false.
Paste BN has already debunked several baseless claims about the Maui fires, including that they were intentionally set in a "land grab," that an image proves an energy weapon beam caused them and that the U.S. hasn't shown a support "surge" for Maui like it did for Ukraine.
Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Paste BN, Aug. 16, As death toll in Maui fire rises, here's how it compares to the deadliest fires in the US
- Paste BN, Aug. 11, How did the wildfires start in Maui? A combination of factors fueled disaster
- Paste BN, Aug. 16, Maui fires spark baseless conspiracy theories about directed energy weapons
- 管理人_SubaruTel_StarCamAdmin, Jan. 28, A Rare View of the Green Laser Scan from the Space 2023-1-28 UT (YouTube)
- Subaru Telescope, accessed Aug. 25, About the Subaru Telescope
- Subaru Telescope, Feb. 15, Subaru-Asahi Star Camera Captures Faint Green Laser Lights from Earth Observation Satellite
- U.S. Geological Survey, accessed Aug. 25, Mauna Kea - A Postshield-Stage Volcano that Once Hosted Glaciers
- China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, March 26, Daqi-1 atmospheric monitoring satellite set to be completed this year
- NASA, accessed Aug. 25, Daqi 1
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, accessed Aug. 25, Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.