Russian cosmonaut told what is seen from the ISS. What the earth looks like from different parts of the solar system

It's always interesting how all things on Earth look when viewed from space. And can you see them at all? Some of geographical elements terrain and man-made structures are large enough to be seen from space. Here is a list of 10 things on Earth that astronauts see.

✰ ✰ ✰

night cities

Astronauts can identify continents on Earth from space by analyzing their shape. But the sight of illuminated cities has a more impressive visual effect. Basically, it's about major cities around the world. Astronauts see illuminated areas of the United States, Europe and India.

✰ ✰ ✰

Palm Islands, Dubai

The Palm Islands, along with Dubai's World Islands, are visible even from space. Since these are the world's largest artificial islands, there is nothing surprising in this. The Palm Islands are actually three palm-shaped artificial islands spread over an area of ​​60 square meters. km. Here you will find hundreds luxury hotels, villas, shopping centers and parks - a real man-made miracle. The World Islands archipelago has an area of ​​more than 9 square kilometers and contains 300 artificial islands built of sand on the shallow coast of Dubai.

✰ ✰ ✰

Phytoplankton bloom

Plankton is one of the most common and amazing phenomena in the ocean - countless microscopic algae wandering on the surface of the water. The process of plankton bloom can be seen even from space, it is filmed by satellites such as Terra and Aqua from NASA.

Plankton is food for many ocean creatures from small fish to large whales. It also plays an important role in the conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen. Plankton begins to bloom warm waters ocean, which from space looks like a multi-colored whirlpool.

✰ ✰ ✰

Greenhouses Almeria, Spain

The greenhouses of Almeria are the heart Agriculture Spain. They are located on an area of ​​259 sq. km. These plastic greenhouses are visible from space during the daytime. Several hundred tons of vegetables and fruits are produced here every year, and from here the products are exported to many European countries. This economic miracle of Spain attracts a lot of tourists, so Almeria is a popular tourist destination in Spain.

✰ ✰ ✰

Pyramids of Giza

One of the seven wonders ancient world also became favorite place on Earth for astronauts who want to get spectacular photo Lands from space orbit. Pyramids are not visible to the naked eye from space, astronauts use a camera with a large focal length. Cameras with high resolution The ISS has taken many detailed pictures of the pyramids of Giza from space.

On satellite images of the pyramids of Giza from the southeastern part, they seem to be illuminated by the Sun. Also in these pictures you can see the statue of the Sphinx.

✰ ✰ ✰

Delta of the Ganges

The Ganges Delta is the largest river delta in the world, located in the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh and India, in a region called West Bengal. Delta covers an area of ​​more than 100 thousand square meters. km. This amazing territory can also be seen from Earth's orbit.

✰ ✰ ✰

Grand Canyon

Of course, it will take a very long time to explore every meter of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. But astronauts orbiting Earth are lucky enough to see the Grand Canyon all at once. Satellite images of the Grand Canyon are helping scientists map the surface of the Canyon as well as observe changes in its topography.

✰ ✰ ✰

Amazon river

Almost 7,000 km of the Amazon River and its tributaries are visible to astronauts from the Earth's orbit. During floods, the river forms branches, like lines of a web that are visible from space. In satellite images of the Amazon, the color of the water appears very dark due to the color of the soil of the lowland forests surrounding the river.

✰ ✰ ✰

Great Barrier Reef

2500 km of the Bolshoi barrier reef make it the largest coral reef in the world. It is also the largest creature in this world that can be seen from space. The Great Barrier Reef connects over 900 islands and reefs located in the eastern part of Australia. It is included in the list of objects world heritage UNESCO and is home to 1500 species tropical fish. It is also a great area for scuba divers and a popular tourist destination in Australia.

✰ ✰ ✰

Himalayas

The Himalayan mountains, where the highest peaks of the world are located, are also clearly visible from space. The highest mountain range on the planet separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau, where Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, is located. There are hundreds of mountain peaks in the Himalayas, the height of which exceeds 7200 meters. Many parts of this mountain range are sacred to both Hinduism and Buddhism.

✰ ✰ ✰

Conclusion

It was an article: What can be seen on Earth from space? TOP 10. Thank you for your attention.

Even at school, our imagination was amazed by the stories that only the Great Chinese Wall visible from space. It turns out that people have created a lot of impressive structures that can be seen from a height of hundreds of kilometers. True, from 400 km - the highest point of the ISS orbit - man-made structures are not visible without the help of optics, but if you go down lower, you can see a lot of interesting things. The height of the orbit of the American shuttles was about 200 km, but numerous satellites fly even lower.
10. Kuibyshev reservoir
This artificial reservoir with an area of ​​6.45 thousand km² is the second largest river reservoir in the world. It is also called the Zhiguli Sea. The purpose of the reservoir is irrigation, power generation, fisheries development and others. important tasks.
9. Nazca Lines

Presumably, these mysterious geoglyphs were built between 400 and 650 AD. The lines are located in the south of Peru on the Nazca plateau. One of the hypotheses suggests that these lines are signal and are intended for landing alien ships. And therefore, there should be nothing surprising in the fact that they are visible from space.
8. Lake Volta

The world's largest man-made reservoir is located in Africa on the Volta River and has an area of ​​8.5 thousand km². The lake occupies 3.6% of the area of ​​Ghana. More than 5.5 million people live on the banks of this reservoir.
7. Sheikh Hamad's name

Eccentric Arab billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan built the inscription "HAMAD" on the private island of Al Futaisi. The height of each letter is 1 km, the length of the inscription is more than 3 km. The first 2 letters represent shipping channels filled with water.
5. Horse Sultan

This earthen sculpture was created from coal slag from a mine in Caerphilly, Wales. Of course, from the ISS it can only be seen using optics, but here on satellite images"Sultan" is visible very well.
4. Firefox Logo

On the fields american state Oregon in 2006, a circle was created in the shape of the logo of the then-young Firefox browser. The logo shot has become one of the most popular places on Google Earth. Such original advertising really helped to attract new users to the browser. ©
3. The Great Pyramids of Egypt

The giant tombs of the ancient pharaohs have a height of 138 to 146 meters. Some researchers believe that, like the Nazca lines, the pyramids are beacons for alien aliens. Be that as it may, they are really easy to see from low Earth orbit.
2. Artificial island Palm Jumeirah

Bulk islands in Dubai are included in many ratings and tops. The Palm Jumeirah is the largest man-made island and one of the most expensive structures in the world. The sixteen branches of the palm island and the mound surrounding them are perfectly visible from orbit.

1. Great Wall of China

This grandiose structure is almost 9,000 km long, including branches. The construction of the wall began in the 4th century BC. and continued slowly until 1644. The wall is indeed visible from orbit to the naked eye, but only under ideal weather conditions.

A corpse of a pink rabbit, giant autographs and a Ukrainian trident can be found on Google Maps.

From space, our Earth looks very beautiful. Sometimes many times better than from the surface. But a person leaves on the body of the Earth not only landfills and poisonous rivers of waste.

From the satellite you can see a lot of funny things. And thanks modern technologies everyone can admire the quirks.

We present you the top 7 funny objects that can be seen from space on our Earth.

Pink rabbit corpse

In the first place - a giant knitted pink rabbit, which lies in the Italian Alps, not far from the town of Arestina.

According to legend, the rabbit fell from a great height and crashed, his intestines even fell out of his belly.

This crazy idea belongs to a group of Italian artists called "Gelatin". They tied a 60-meter rabbit out of natural materials, which should decompose by 2025.

Tourists make annual pilgrimages to the rabbit, who are happy to take pictures near the giant "corpse".

Sheikh and chief's name

In second place in terms of eccentricity is a giant name in the desert. Billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi wrote his name on the island of Futaisi.

Huge letters "HAMAD" 1 km high are clearly visible from space. The first two are the shipping channel. The length of the inscription is more than 3 kilometers.

The communist inscription is formed by trees planted by the forestry enterprise of the Kurgan region near the villages of Trud and Znanie. The tree composition was made 40 years ago, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. The letters are 100 meters long and 600 meters wide.

• READ:

Ukraine from space

In fourth place is the most patriotic man-made object that can be seen from space.

A resident of Ostrynia in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, 90-year-old UPA veteran Anastasy Kozak laid out a trident from white stone, which can be seen on Google Maps. Thus, the UPA fighter decided to honor the memory of his comrades who died for Ukraine.

For several months, the veteran carried stones to the mountain, cut down unnecessary bushes that would block the work from human eyes, and even planted spruce and arborvitae on the hill. Today he regularly goes to the mountain and waters them.

The location of the coat of arms of Ukraine was chosen unusually well, thanks to the open area, the trident is well recognizable both from the air and from the Ivano-Frankivsk-Kyiv highway.

most advanced

Of course, Facebook could not afford not to be presented to the inhabitants of the orbit.

At the company's new headquarters in Menlo Park, California, a huge QR code has recently appeared on the roof of one of the buildings. The icon in which it is encrypted object page URL on Facebook, has an area of ​​12 square meters.

True, until Google indexed the new kind the rooftops of Mark Zuckerberg's office. On the satellite map The Facebook office is still undergoing renovations.

The architects did not choose this form on purpose. Just in this way it was most convenient to place buildings on a small plot of land.

• READ:

It is said that the public was outraged by the "Nazi" look of the US Navy. The agency had to spend a lot of money to rebuild it, but judging by the screenshots of Google Maps, little has changed.

forest protector

Closes our hit parade lake-man in Brazil. A 140-meter man-made lake was created near the town of Iacanga in the state of Sao Paulo.

It represents the figure of a man falling flat on a patch of forest. There is a legend on the Internet that the lake was made on purpose to protect the green patch from being cut down.

See what other famous and unusual objects can be seen from space .

• SEE PHOTO:

(Total 29 photos)

1. Go, "Discovery"! On October 23, 2007 at 11:40 am, I went into space for the first time on the Discovery shuttle. He's beautiful... it's a pity that this is his last flight. I look forward to boarding the ship and it will arrive at the station in November.

2. Earth radiance. Space station in the blue earth glow that appears when the rising sun penetrates the thin atmosphere of our planet, and the station is bathed in blue light. I will never forget this place… from such a sight the soul sings, and the heart wants to fly.

3. NASA astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock.

4. Juan de Nova Island in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and Africa. The amazing color scheme of these places can compete with the views of the Caribbean.

5. Northern lights in the distance on one of the beautiful nights over Europe. The photo clearly shows the Strait of Dover, however, like Paris, the city of lights. Light fog over the western part of England, in particular over London. How incredible to see the lights of cities and towns against the backdrop of deep space. I will miss this view of our amazing world.

6. “Fly me to the Moon…let me dance among the Stars…” (Take me to the Moon, let's dance among the stars). I hope we never lose the sense of wonder. A passion for exploration and discovery is a great legacy to leave to your children. I hope someday we will set sail and go on a journey. Someday this wonderful day will come...

7. Of all the places on our magnificent planet, few can compete in beauty and richness of colors with. This photo shows our Progress-37 ship with the Bahamas in the background. How beautiful is our world!

8. At a speed of 28,163 km/h (8 km/s)… we orbit the Earth, making one revolution every 90 minutes, and watching sunsets and sunrises every 45 minutes. So half of our journey is in pitch darkness. For work, we simply need lights on helmets. In this photo, I am preparing the handle of one device ... "M3 Ammonia Connector".

9. Every time I look out the window and see our beautiful planet, my soul sings! I see blue skies, white clouds and bright blessed day.

10. Another spectacular sunset. In Earth's orbit, we see 16 such sunsets every day, and each of them is truly valuable. This beautiful thin blue line is what sets our planet apart from many others. It is cold in space, and the Earth is an island of life in the vast dark sea of ​​space.

11. Beautiful atoll in pacific ocean photographed with a 400mm lens. Approximately 1930 km south of Honolulu.

12. Beautiful reflection sunlight in the eastern part mediterranean sea. There are no borders visible from outer space… From there, only a breathtaking view opens up, like, for example, the view of this island of Cyprus.

13. Over the center of the Atlantic Ocean, before another amazing sunset. Below, in the rays of the setting sun, the spirals of Hurricane Earl are visible. An interesting look at the life energy of our sun. Sunbeams on the station's port side and on Hurricane Earl...these two objects are collecting the last bits of energy before plunging into darkness.

14. A little further east we saw the sacred monolith of Uluru, better known as Ayers Rock. I have never had the opportunity to visit Australia, but someday I hope to be able to stand next to this natural wonder.

15. Morning over the Andes in South America. I do not know for sure the name of this peak, but I was simply amazed by its magic, stretching towards the sun and winds of the peaks.

16. Over the Sahara desert, approaching ancient lands and thousands of years of history. The Nile River flows through Egypt past the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo. Further, the Red Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, as well as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and Greece on the horizon.

17. Night view of the Nile River, serpentine through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, and Cairo, located in the river delta. What a contrast between the dark lifeless desert North Africa and the Nile River, on the banks of which life is in full swing. The Mediterranean Sea is visible in the distance in this picture taken on a beautiful autumn evening.

18. Our unmanned 'Progress 39P' approaching the ISS for refueling. It is full of food, fuel, spare parts and everything we need for our station. Inside was a real gift - fresh fruits and vegetables. What a miracle after three months of tube feeding!

20. Soyuz 23C Olympus module docked to the nadir side. When our work is done here, we will return home to Earth. I thought you'd be interested in seeing this spectacle through the Dome. We are flying over the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus. The rising sun reflects off the Caspian Sea.

21. A flash of color, movement and life on the canvas of our wonderful world. This is part of the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia, shot through a 1200mm lens. I think even the great impressionists would be amazed by this natural picture.

22. All the beauty of Italy is clear summer evening. You can see many beautiful islands that adorn the coast - Capri, Sicily and Malta. Naples and Mount Vesuvius stand out along the coast.

23. In the southern end South America lies the pearl of Patagonia. Amazing beauty of rocky mountains, massive glaciers, fjords and high seas combined in amazing harmony. I dreamed about this place. I wonder what it's like to breathe in the air there. Real magic!

24. The "dome" on the nadir side of the station gives a panoramic view of our beautiful planet. Fedor took this picture from the window of the Russian docking bay. In this photo, I'm sitting in the dome, getting my camera ready for our evening flight over Hurricane Earl.

27. Clear starry night over eastern part Mediterranean Sea. Ancient lands with a thousand-year history stretch from Athens to Cairo. Historic lands, fabulous cities and enticing islands... Athens - Crete - Rhodes - Izmir - Ankara - Cyprus - Damascus - Beirut - Haifa - Amman - Tel Aviv - Jerusalem - Cairo - they all turned into tiny lights on this cool November night. From these places it seems to breathe grace and tranquility.

28. At this time of the year, you can fully enjoy the beauty of the polar mesospheric clouds. With our high light angle, we were able to capture a thin layer of noctilucent clouds at sunset.

29. Shannon, myself and Fedor in our Falcon suits in the MRM-1 module. We boarded the Olympus capsule to seal and check for leaks on our suits. All systems are running, the countdown has started.

The other day, NASA announced that on July 19, the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn will photograph the Earth, which at the time of shooting will be at a distance of 1.44 billion kilometers from the device. This is not the first photo shoot of this kind, but the first one that was announced in advance. NASA experts hope that the new image will take pride of place among such famous pictures of the Earth. Like it or not, time will tell, but for now we can remember the history of photographing our planet from the depths of space.

Since ancient times, people have always wanted to look at our planet from above. The advent of aviation gave mankind the opportunity to rise beyond the clouds, and soon the rapid development of rocket technology made possible to obtain photographs from truly cosmic heights. The first images from space (according to the FAI standards, according to which space begins at a height of 100 km above sea level) were made in 1946 using a captured V-2 rocket.

By the way, after the mission of Explorer-6 was completed, he still served the American Motherland, becoming a target for testing anti-satellite missiles.

Since satellite photography has developed at an incredible pace and now you can find a bunch of pictures of any part of the earth's surface for every taste. But the vast majority of these photos were taken from low earth orbit. What does the Earth look like from more distant distances?

Snapshot of the Apollos

The only people who could see the entire Earth (roughly speaking in one frame) were 24 people from the Apollo crews. We have a few classic shots as a legacy from this program.

And here is a picture taken with Apollo 11, where the earth terminator is clearly visible (and yes, we are not talking about a famous action movie, but about a line dividing the illuminated and unlit parts of the planet).

Photo of the Earth's crescent over the surface of the Moon, taken by the crew Apollo 15.

Another Earthrise, this time over the so-called dark side Moon. Photo taken with Apollo 16.

"The Blue Marble"- another iconic photograph taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 from a distance of approximately 29 thousand km. from our planet. It wasn't the first image to show a completely illuminated Earth, but it became one of the most famous. Apollo 17 astronauts are still last people who could observe the Earth from this angle. For the 40th anniversary of the photo, NASA remake this photo by gluing a bunch of frames from different satellites into a single composite image. There is also a Russian analogue made from the Elektro-M satellite.

When viewed from the surface of the Moon, the Earth is constantly at the same point in the sky. Since the Apollos landed in the equatorial regions, in order to make a patriotic avatar, the astronauts had to get the hang of it.

Shots from moderate distances

In addition to the Apollos, a number of AMS photographed the Earth from a great distance. Here are the most famous of these pictures

Highly famous shot Voyager 1 taken on September 18, 1977 from a distance of 11.66 million kilometers from Earth. As far as I know, this was the first image of the Earth and the Moon in one frame.

A similar picture taken by the device Galileo from a distance of 6.2 million kilometers in 1992

Photo taken on July 3, 2003 from the station Mars Express. The distance to Earth is 8 million kilometers.

And here is the most recent, but oddly the worst quality picture taken by the mission Juno from a distance of 9.66 million kilometers. So think - either NASA really saved on cameras, then because of financial crisis they fired all the employees responsible for photoshop.

Pictures from Martian orbit

This is what the Earth and Jupiter looked like from the orbit of Mars. The pictures were taken on May 8, 2003 by the apparatus Mars Global Surveyor, which was at that time at a distance of 139 million kilometers from the Earth. It is worth noting that the camera on board the device could not take color images and these are pictures in artificial colors.

Map of the location of Mars and planets at the time of shooting

And this is how the Earth looks already from the surface of the red planet. It is difficult to disagree with this inscription.

And here is another image of the Martian sky. The brighter point is Venus, the less bright one (pointed to by the arrows) is our home planet

Who cares, a very atmospheric photo of a sunset on Mars. It is somewhat reminiscent of a similar frame from a movie Stranger.

Pictures from the orbit of Saturn

in higher resolution

And here is the Earth in one of the pictures taken by the device mentioned at the beginning Cassini. The image itself is a composite image taken in September 2006. It was made up of 165 photographs taken in infrared and ultraviolet, which were then glued and processed to make the colors look like natural ones. In contrast to this mosaic, during the July 19 survey, the Earth and Saturn system will be filmed for the first time in so-called natural colors, that is, as they would be seen by the human eye. In addition, for the first time, the Earth and the Moon will fall into the lens of the Cassini camera with the highest resolution.

Here's what Jupiter looks like from Saturn's orbit. The picture, of course, was also taken by the Cassini apparatus. At that time, the gas giants were separated by a distance of 11 astronomical units.

Family portrait "from inside" the solar system

This portrait of the solar system was taken by the spacecraft MESSENGER in orbit around Mercury in November 2010. Compiled from 34 images, the mosaic shows all the planets in the solar system, except for Uranus and Neptune, which were too far away to be recorded. In the pictures you can see the Moon, the four main satellites of Jupiter and even a piece of the Milky Way.

Scheme of the location of the apparatus and planets at the time of shooting.

And finally, the father of all family portraits and ultra-long-range photographs - a mosaic of 60 photographs taken by the same Voyager 1 between February 14 and June 6, 1990. After the passage of Saturn in November 1980, the apparatus was generally inactive - it had no other celestial bodies to study, and about 25 more years of flight remained before approaching the border of the heliopause.

After numerous requests, Carl Sagan managed to convince NASA management to reactivate the ship's cameras that were turned off a decade ago and take a picture of all the planets in the solar system. Only Mercury (which was too close to the Sun), Mars (which, again, was prevented by light from the Sun) and Pluto, which was simply too small, could not be photographed.

Earth is a very small stage in the vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood shed by all these generals and emperors, so that, in the rays of glory and triumph, they may become momentary masters of a fraction of a grain of sand. Think of the endless cruelties committed by the inhabitants of one corner of this point on the barely distinguishable inhabitants of another corner. About how frequent disagreements are between them, about how eager they are to kill each other, about how hot their hatred is.

Our posturing, our imagined importance, our delusion of our privileged status in the universe, they all succumb to this point of pale light. Our planet is just a single speck of dust in the surrounding cosmic darkness. In this vast void, there is no hint that someone will come to our aid in order to save us from our own ignorance.

Earth is the only known world capable of sustaining life. We have nowhere else to go - at least in the near future. Stay - yes. Colonize - not yet. Like it or not, the Earth is our home now."