Is the Great Wall of China visible from space? What can be seen from space.

AT last years the myth that we can clearly see the Great Wall of China from space is largely debunked. Although its walls are very long, they are not very wide and merge with environment. This fact, of course, can be frustrating, but there are still many "terrestrial" things that we can see from space. Especially when satellites of the International space station(ISS).

10 Careers

The depressions in the picture are, in fact, massive quarries from which gold, copper, uranium and other resources of the Earth are extracted. This process involves creating a depression, but in order to gain access to resources, it is necessary to deepen and widen the depression over time. So it turns out that later these pits grow to giant size, which are just as visible from space as any other lake or mountain. For example, the now closed Mir Diamond Mine in Russia is so huge that officials were forced to ban flights over it. Apparently, the (1,700ft) and (3,900ft) pit, 1,200 meters wide and 523 meters deep, creates such a downdraft that helicopters are literally sucked into it. And it's not even the largest mine in the world - now that title has passed to Bingham Canyon, which is also known as the Kennecott copper mine, located outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. This mine stretched 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) deep and 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) wide. Even two buildings of the Empire State Building, placed on top of each other, could not reach the top of this "canyon". The mine is expected to expand until 2030. NASA astronauts took the aforementioned photo of this huge mine, broadcasting it over the ISS.

9 Seasons

Those who stayed in orbit long enough could observe the changing of the seasons. However, even on Earth, we can see this fascinating transformation thanks to NASA satellite imagery. Pictures sent in every month, combined with animation, show the ebb and flow of the polar ice, the change of dry and wet seasons in the tropics, and the birth and death of vegetation cycles around the world. Perhaps the most interesting activity is watching the movement of Arctic ice, which take diverse forms, and then recede back each year. Now look at it in numbers, Arctic sea ice covers an average of 15 million square kilometers (5.8 million sq mi) during the cold months of the year and then halves in summer. In comparison, Antarctica is losing almost all of its glaciers to the sea from 18 million to 3 million square kilometers (6.9 million to 1.2 million sq mi).

8 Wildfires

For those who live in dry, hot environments, forest fires are a common occurrence. Smoke and ash from fires can darken the sky for hundreds of kilometers, so even an astronaut could notice such an amount of smoke. The photo above is a satellite image taken in October 2003 during a strong forest fire in California, which stretched from Santa Barbara all the way to the Mexican border. because of strong winds, this fire, along with others, burned over 600,000 acres across the state, with damage to a large number of people. However, a large hearth of fire is needed, the smoke from which would be visible from space. NASA has a collection of images of smoke from fires, big and small. One of the most interesting was a photo showing hundreds of fires that appeared in Africa at the same time. Although their number was incredible, but the smoke coming from the fires was not visible.

7 Volcanic eruptions

While we expected to see massive volcanic eruptions from space, the fact is that between 50 and 60 eruptions occurring on the planet every year, astronauts can observe in the form of ash and steam rising from one of these natural “chimneys”. Sometimes even hot, incandescent magma is visible from space, rising within the height of the stratosphere. Sarychev volcano (when viewed from above) in the northwestern part Pacific Ocean is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, having erupted eight times since 1946. In 2009, a strong eruption with its shock wave was able to open the cloudy sky, allowing astronauts to get amazingly clear photos of this phenomenon. There are other active volcanoes on the planet, such as Mount Stromboli and Mount Etna in Italy, and Mount Yasur in Vanuatu, all three have continuously erupted for hundreds, even thousands of years.

6 Phytoplankton bloom

Phytoplankton are microscopic plant organisms that can multiply rapidly and create huge algae on the surface of the ocean. They accumulate in such dense and large groups that sometimes you can see all this mass of tiny creatures from space. Their blooms span hundreds of kilometers or even more, and then, following the current in the ocean, they are able to create unexpectedly beautiful swirls and patterns, blue and green. Receiving a large amount sunlight and nutrients, phytoplankton become food for a variety of marine animals, making them significant in the ocean food chain. They are also huge sinks carbon dioxide, which offsets about one-third of the CO2 that humans produce each year from burning fossil fuels. The bloom in the photo above occurred off the coast of Ireland in 2010 and was photographed by NASA from the Terra satellite. It is believed that the volcanic eruption in Iceland gave great amount nutrients for phytoplankton, which allowed it to grow to such an impressive size.

5 Border between India and Pakistan

There is no better vantage point than space to see the beauty of the planet and the interrelationships between the human races. However, even being hundreds and thousands of kilometers above the Earth, it is impossible not to notice the ugly aspects of life and the limitations that we set for each other. Take, for example, the artificial borders between India and Pakistan. These two countries built, in fact, military border, which is illuminated by searchlights at night to prevent illegal arms smuggling among terrorists. Such a bright orange glow along the border, 2900 km long, is easily visible from space. During recent decades, the India-Pakistan border was one of the most dangerous places in the world.

4 Twin Towers

NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson was the only American not on Earth at the time of the September 11 attacks. But that didn't stop him from witnessing what most of us saw on the news after the destruction of the Twin Towers. While orbiting 330 kilometers (205 miles) above the earth, Culbertson heard about the event just as the shuttle was about to pass by. New England. The astronaut hurried to look out of the window and, of course, saw a huge plume of smoke rising from New York. Horrified, the astronaut snapped what is now one of the most famous images recorded of that day. Later, scientists used satellite data to determine that the plume from the World Trade Center had risen up to 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) into the air. and drifted about 70 kilometers (43 miles) in US territory. This plume was full of cement, gypsum, asbestos, fiberglass, calcium carbonate, lead, and other metal particles. In other words, it was a toxic cloud of dust that engulfed a huge number of people.

3 Deforestation

Fortunately, looking at the earth from above, sometimes you can get more reliable information about what is happening with the planet. One such example is deforestation. If we could stay in space for 30 or 40 years, we could see in person what satellites have carefully documented over the years: the consistent and significant loss of trees in our forests. The above image is from NASA Landsat 1, a satellite , which the for a long time produced a series of photographs of the Amazon forests. So a tropical forest changed a lot in 2000 and 2012. What used to be a dense, lush, bright green area has now lost more than 2,500 square kilometers of forest in those 37 years. This area in the "fresh" photographs looks very deserted. Overall, the Amazon has lost more than 360,000 square kilometers of vegetation since the 1980s, due to clearing for roads, timber, Agriculture and other resources.

2 Sandstorms

There are three main ingredients needed to form a sandstorm: wind, sand or dust, and dryness. When all these elements come together in "optimal" conditions, huge storms literally blow the dust up, sweeping everything in its path at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph). These storms can reach such sizes that they can be seen even from the ISS. For example, the astronaut picture above shows a massive plume of dust emanating from Egypt, extending almost to the opposite edge of the Red Sea. Similar sandstorms occur regularly off the coast of Africa, China, and other places where the winds can carry debris thousands of miles away. It's not uncommon in the Sahara, too, where dust obscures the sky, making it cloudy in the northern Caribbean. During the day it does not look very impressive, but in the evening you can watch magnificent sunsets.

1 Borders between developed and poor countries

Modern civilizations have provided such big influence on the "globe" that our political boundaries are visually distinguishable even hundreds of miles from Earth. NASA astronaut John Gransveld has flown into space five times in his career. After his flights, he said that rich countries tend to have a delicate green color, while poorer countries with limited access to water are disgusting brown. Also, nations that have a poorly developed electricity network look dim at night, which is strikingly different from neighboring nations whose cities "glow" in the dark. This is especially noticeable between the borders of North and South Korea. At night, South Korea glows like any modern area, while North Korea is so dark that it is almost invisible. In the picture above, we see South Korea glowing brightly in the lower right corner (Seoul being the brightest spot), while China glowing dazzlingly on the other side. But where is North Korea? No, she didn't drown in the ocean; in fact, it is located in a black mass between the lights of South Korea and China. the only visible light in this area is the capital of Pyongyang. This example shows how many countries live without electricity, and it makes you think about what can happen to them in winter, even if there are no normal hospitals even with frostbite.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Greenhouses Almeria, Spain

Almería's greenhouses are the heart of Spain's agriculture. 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.

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Pyramids of Giza

One of the seven wonders ancient world also became favorite place on Earth for astronauts who want to get spectacular photo Land with 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Great Barrier Reef

2500 km of the Great Barrier Reef make it the largest coral reef on Earth. It is also the largest creature in this world that can be seen from space. Big barrier reef connects more than 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.

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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.

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Conclusion

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

Incredible Facts

In recent years, the myth that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space has been finally debunked.

Although the wall is long, it is not wide enough and blends in too well with the surroundings to be noticeable from space .

This fact must have disappointed many, but there are many beautiful things on earth that can be seen from space, especially when in Earth orbit, where satellites and the International Space Station are located.

open pits

Quarries are essentially massive pits from which gold, copper, uranium and other minerals are mined. To gain access to resources, it is required to dig a hole in the ground, which expands and deepens until a person finds what he is looking for.

Therefore, such pits are often expanded to gigantic sizes, which become visible from space, like any lake or mountain.

For example, the closed Russian Mir diamond mine so colossal in size that Russian officials had to close for flights to this area. Apparently, the hole, 523 meters deep and 1200 meters wide, created such a strong downdraft that it provoked helicopters to fall from the sky.

And it's not even the biggest mine in the world. This title is held by the mine Bingham Canyon(Bingham Canyon), also known as the Kennecott Copper Mine, located outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The depth of the mine is 1.2 km, the width is 4.4 km. Until 2030, the mine will still be expanding. NASA astronauts did it amazing photo Grandiose Bingham Canyon while passing over it while on the ISS.

Seasons

Those who are in orbit for quite a long time can actually watch how the seasons change based on the changing topography of the planet. However, even we earthlings can see this fascinating transformation thanks to NASA satellite imagery.

When the monthly images are combined into an animation, they show the ebb and flow of the tides polar ice, dry and wet seasons in the tropics, and the growth cycle of vegetation around the world.

It is perhaps most interesting to observe the formation arctic ice, as well as for how he retreats annually. Speaking about this process in numbers, the Arctic sea ice covers an area in the coldest months of the year. 15 million square kilometers, in summer the space it occupies is halved.

For comparison: Antarctica is losing almost all of its ice (18 million square kilometers in winter to 3 million in summer).

Forest fires

For those who live in dry and hot environments, the constant threat of fires is simply a fact of life. Smoke and ashes from this disaster "adjusts" the brightness of the sky for hundreds of kilometers, and during fires such an amount of smoke is produced that even astronauts can tell that something is on fire.

The picture above shows a satellite image taken in October 2003 of a California wildfire that started just above Santa Barbara and extended all the way to the Mexican border. Due to strong Santa Anna winds, this fire along with several others then burned over 240,000 hectares of land across the state and claimed a large number of lives.

However, a fire and not of this magnitude can be visible from space. NASA specialists have a collection of photographs of smoke from fires, large and small.

One of the most interesting is a series of photographs showing hundreds of small fires over Africa at the same time. However, it is widely believed that this smoke had a different origin: several farmers burned their land for agricultural purposes.

Volcanic eruptions

There are 50-60 volcanic eruptions on Earth every year. Any of these can be seen by astronauts as rising ash and smoke from a natural chimney. Sometimes even burning, glowing magma is visible far beyond the stratosphere.

Sarychev Volcano (pictured above) is located in the Pacific Northwest and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The volcano has erupted 8 times since 1946. During its eruption in 2009, the shock wave was very strong, "exploding the clouds" and enabling astronauts to get amazingly clear photos of this phenomenon.

Other most active volcanoes are Mount Stromboli in Italy, Mount Etna in Italy, Mount Yasur in Vanuatu. All of them are constantly erupting for hundreds and even thousands of years.

How the earth is seen from space

The radiance of phytoplankton

Phytoplankton are microscopic, plant-like organisms that multiply rapidly and create huge algae blooms on the surface of the ocean. They accumulate in populations so large and large that sometimes the only way to see them in their entirety is to look from space.

Their blooms can span over a hundred kilometers, and since they follow ocean currents, phytoplankton can take on very beautiful blue-green forms.

Flowering begins when the ocean waters mix and the phytoplankton receive the maximum amount of light and nutrients. It also serves as food for a variety of marine life, and is the backbone of the ocean food chain.

It is also a major carbon dioxide sink, absorbing about a third of all the CO2 that humanity produces from burning fossil fuels. Photo of a plankton bloom taken in 2010 off the coast of Ireland by a NASA satellite.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in Iceland is believed to have provided phytoplankton iron and other nutrients which allowed him to grow to such an impressive size.

Border between India and Pakistan

Not best place than space to see all the beauty of our planet and the relationship between them human race. However, even rising hundreds of kilometers above the Earth, we can still see some not entirely pleasant aspects of life that we ourselves create.

Let's take, for example, man-made border between India and Pakistan. The two countries are in such relationship with each other that they have erected a physical militarized border, which is illuminated by searchlights at night to prevent ammunition trafficking and terrorist crossings.

The illumination of the border is so bright that the 2,900 km demarcation line is clearly visible from the ISS. The border runs through various terrains, including cities and deserts, but, surprisingly, is on fire at its full length.

Over the past decades, the India-Pakistan border has been one of the most dangerous places in the world, plagued by lawlessness, violence and deadly confrontations.

Deforestation

Looking at the planet from above, you can easily get a real view of what is happening to it. One such example is deforestation. If a person could be in space for 30 or 40 years, then he could see with his own eyes what satellites have been documenting for many years: consistent and regular loss of forest areas.

The image above was taken by NASA's Landsat 1 satellite and is "one of" in a long line of photos that reveal the startling change appearance rainforest Amazon between 2000 and 2012.

In just 37 years, this area, covered with lush and dense trees, has lost 2,500 square kilometers of forest. This is very clearly seen in the photo from space. In general, over the entire history of its existence, the Amazon forests have lost 360,000 square kilometers.

What is seen from space

Sandstorm

There are three main components required for the formation of a sandstorm: wind, sand or dust, and dryness. When these three components are combined under ideal conditions, incredible streams begin to rise up at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour, sweeping away everything and everyone in its path.

These storms are sometimes so large that they can be observed from the ISS. For example, the picture above shows a sandstorm that has covered Egypt and stretched across almost the entire Red Sea.

Similar sandstorms occur regularly off the coast of Africa, China and other places where the trade winds can carry dust for thousands of kilometers. It's not uncommon for the dust and sand of the Sahara create a dirty and foggy sky over the entire territory of the Caribbean.

Sandstorms cause damage to buildings, people and animals, however, they also bring benefits by delivering minerals and other nutrients to areas where vegetation accumulates, such as, for example, the forests of the Amazon.

Borders between rich and poor countries

Modern civilizations have such an impact on Earth that the borders between countries are visibly distinguishable even from a height of hundreds of kilometers. NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld has flown the Space Shuttle five times in his career.

He said rich countries tend to glow green, while poorer countries, which have access to drinking water limited, "painted" in an unpleasant brown.

In addition, countries for which electricity is not commonplace noticeably dim at night and contrast sharply with neighboring states, whose bright cities illuminate the sky.

This difference is especially evident between the borders of the Northern and South Korea. At night, South Korea, like any modern country, is lit, while North Korea is so dark that the state is practically disappearing.

The photo above shows how South Korea is "burning" in the lower right corner (the brightest spot is Seoul). China is equally bright throughout its territory (opposite part of the photo). But where is North Korea?

No, she didn't drown in the ocean. In fact, "black mass" between South Korea and China is the desired territory. Also note the tangerine DMZ. Only the capital, Pyongyang, is visible.

While North Korea It's hard to blame light pollution, but this photo clearly illustrates how most of countries, most likely, lives without electricity, as well as without everything connected with it: heat in winter period, refrigeration, appropriate temperatures in hospitals, etc.

Guitar in the pampas

This unusual forest belt stretches half a kilometer long through the pampas of Argentina. Only from above you can see that the forest looks like a giant guitar. Farmer Pedro Martín Ureta and his four children created this impressive piece of street art in memory of his wife and mother who died early. The guitar "consists" of 7,000 living trees and has been amazing pilots of local airlines for several decades.

Giant chessboard

This chess board (400x400 m.) is located near the German city of Bad Frankenhausen-Kyffhäuser. Appeared in 2009. Four years ago, this board hosted a match between Elisabeth Patz, a member of the German women's chess team, against the world chess community.

In fact, this is a classic seven-turn labyrinth - a mystical sign, known to mankind several millennia. Such labyrinths are found on all five continents. Perhaps the most famous drawing can be seen on ancient Cretan coins in the Heraklion Museum. Thanks to the myth of the Minotaur, this drawing has become almost a brand of the island. Here the labyrinth is drawn up to a fingerprint. It is 38 meters long and is located in Hove Park, Brighton (UK).

Long Man from Wilmington, UK

Presumably, it appeared in the Iron Age, according to other sources - in the 16th or 17th century.

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.

A monumental installation in the Sahara Desert (Egypt) was created by three artists, comprehending Zen, Danae and Alexandra Stratow and Stella Konstantinides.

On March 7, 1997, creation was completed. Two spirals of sand cones spun on a platform of 100,000 square meters. In the center is a round pool with an island in the form of a truncated cone. The artists assumed that the structure would disappear further under the influence of erosion, but it is still visible on satellite images made by Google Earth.

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.

A giant rag pink rabbit lies in the Italian Alps, near the town of Arestina. The crazy idea of ​​​​creating such a strange installation belongs to a group of Italian artists called "Gelatin".

They formed a 60-meter rabbit from materials that should decompose by 2025. Tourists make annual pilgrimages to the rabbit, who are happy to take pictures near the giant "corpse".

World map on lake Kleitrup, Denmark.

Celtic sign - giant pretzel in Munich

The Island of Time is located near the airport in Munich (Germany). When creating it, the artist Wilhelm Holderyd was inspired by Celtic motifs, but they call him a huge pretzel (pretzel) locals- for the obvious similarity. Millions of people see this sign as they fly over it to the Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich.

Portrait of Genghis Khan,

Portrait taken during the festival of traditional Mongolian culture Naadam in Ulaanbaatar, 2006

The Golden Spiral is an installation in Morocco created by German artist Hannsjörg Voth and architect Peter Richter in 1992-1997.

Man-shaped lake, Sao Paulo state, Brazil