Is your School part of Project Starshine? This is a program in which students from around the world help to build and observe spherical, reflective satellites. (See the web site at: http://azinet.com/starshine.)
Six years ago, scientists wanted to put a satellite into orbit, then have people around the world observe it from Earth. Observers would record its position and the time it appeared each night to help scientists better understand the atmosphere. But the scientists had a problem: How could they make the satellite visible when it was hundreds of miles up in the air?
Some options they considered would have made the project too complex and maybe have kept it from succeeding. If they tried to put a light in the satellite bright enough to be seen from earth, it would have gotten very big and complicated. When they finally found a solution, it was actually simple. The scientists built a ball 19 inches in diameter. Then they covered it with tiny, one-inch mirrors. Sunlight reflecting from a single one-inch mirror can be seen hundreds of miles away.
