Incredible facts
In recent years, the myth that you can see the Great Wall of China from space has been completely debunked.
Although the wall is long, it is not wide enough and is in too good harmony with the environment to be visible from space.
Many people were probably disappointed by this fact, 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 Agency are located station.
Open careers
Quarries are essentially massive pits from which gold, copper, uranium and other minerals are extracted. To gain access to resources, you need to dig a hole in the ground, which expands and deepens until a person finds what you are looking for.
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Therefore, such pits often expand to gigantic dimensions that become visible from space, like any lake or mountain.
For example, the Russian Mir diamond mine, which was closed today, is so colossal in size that Russian officials had to close this zone for flights. Apparently, the hole, 523 meters deep and 1,200 meters wide, created such a strong downstream that it caused helicopters to fall from the sky.
And it's not even the biggest mine in the world. This title is held by the Bingham Canyon Mine, also known as the Kennecott Copper Mine, located outside Salt Lake City, Utah.
The mine is 1.2 km deep and 4.4 km wide. The mine will still be expanding until 2030. NASA astronauts took this amazing photo of the grandiose Bingham Canyon as they passed over it while on the ISS.
Seasons
Those who have been in orbit for quite some time can actually monitor how the seasons change based on the planet's changing topography. However, even we Earth-dwellers can see this fascinating transformation thanks to NASA satellite imagery.
When combined into an animation, monthly images show the ebb and flow of polar ice, dry and wet seasons in the tropics, and the growth cycle of vegetation around the world.
Perhaps the most interesting thing to watch is the formation of Arctic ice and how it recedes every year. Speaking of this process in numbers: Arctic sea ice covers an area of 15 million square kilometers during the coldest months of the year, and its space is halved in summer.
For comparison, Antarctica loses 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 conditions, the constant threat of fires is simply a fact of life. The smoke and ash from this disaster “regulates” the brightness of the sky by hundreds of kilometers, and fires produce so much smoke that even astronauts can tell that something is burning.
The image above shows a satellite photo taken in October 2003 during a fire in California that started just above Santa Barbara and extended all the way to the Mexican border. Due to the strong Santa Anna winds, this fire, along with several others, then burned more than 240,000 hectares of land across the state and took a large number of lives.
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However, a fire of a smaller scale can be seen from space. NASA experts have at their disposal a collection of photos of smoke from fires, large and small.
One of the most interesting is a series of photographs showing hundreds of small fires over Africa that broke out at the same time. However, it is widely believed that this smoke came from a different origin: several farmers burned their land for agricultural purposes.
Volcanic eruptions
50-60 volcanic eruptions occur on Earth every year. Astronauts can see any of them in the form of rising ash and smoke from a natural chimney. Sometimes even burning, glowing magma can be seen 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. Since 1946, the volcano has erupted 8 times. When it erupted in 2009, the shock wave was very strong, “blowing up clouds” and allowing astronauts to take surprisingly clear photos of the phenomenon.
Other most active volcanoes are Mount Stromboli in Italy, Etna in Italy, and Mount Yasur in Vanuatu. They have all been erupting continuously for hundreds or even thousands of years.
How Earth is seen from space
Phytoplankton glow
Phytoplankton are microscopic, plant-like organisms that multiply rapidly and create huge algal blooms on the ocean surface. They accumulate into populations so large and large that sometimes the only way to see them in their entirety is to look at them from space.
They can bloom over a hundred kilometers, and as they follow the ocean current, phytoplankton can take on very beautiful blue-green forms.
Flowering begins when ocean waters mix and phytoplankton receive the maximum amount of light and nutrients. It also serves as food for a variety of marine life and is the basis of the ocean's food chain.
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It is also a major carbon dioxide sink, absorbing about a third of all the CO2 that humankind produces as a result of burning fossil fuels. A photo of plankton blossoms was taken in 2010 off the coast of Ireland by a NASA satellite.
It is believed that the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland provided phytoplankton with iron and other nutrients that allowed them to grow to such impressive sizes.
India-Pakistan border
There is no better place than outer space to see the beauty of our planet and the interconnectedness of the human race. However, even as we climb hundreds of kilometers above Earth, we can still see some of the not quite pleasant aspects of life that we ourselves create.
Take, for example, the man-made border between India and Pakistan. The two countries are so in relations with each other that they have built a physical militarized border that is illuminated by searchlights at night to prevent trafficking in ammunition and terrorist crossings.
The border is illuminated 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, it burns to 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 sense of what's happening to it. Deforestation is one such example. If a person could stay in space for 30 or 40 years, he would be able to see firsthand what satellites have documented for many years: the consistent and regular loss of forests.
The image above was taken by NASA's Landsat 1 satellite and is “one” in a long series of images that reveal the striking change in the appearance of the Amazon rainforest during the period 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 can be seen very clearly in the photo from space. Overall, the Amazon has lost 360,000 square kilometers in its entire history.
What can be seen from space
Sandstorm
There are three main components needed to form a sandstorm: wind, sand or dust, and dryness. When these three components come together under ideal conditions, incredible streams begin to rise at speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour, sweeping away everything and everyone in their path.
These storms are sometimes so large that they can be seen from the ISS. For example, the above image shows a sandstorm that covered Egypt and spread across almost the entire Red Sea.
Such sandstorms occur regularly off the coast of Africa, China and elsewhere where trade winds can carry dust for thousands of kilometers. It is not uncommon for the dust and sand of the Sahara to create dirty and hazy skies across the Caribbean.
Sandstorms damage buildings, people and animals, but they are also beneficial, bringing minerals and other nutrients to places where vegetation accumulates, such as the Amazon rainforest .
Borders between rich and poor countries
Modern civilizations have such an impact on the globe that the borders between countries are markedly 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 that rich countries tend to “glow” green, while poorer countries with limited access to drinking water are “painted” an unpleasant brown.
In addition, countries for which electricity is not commonplace dim markedly at night and contrast sharply with neighboring countries, whose vibrant cities light up the sky.
This difference is particularly evident between the borders of North and South Korea. At night, South Korea, like any modern country, burns, while North Korea is so dark that the state almost disappears.
The photo above shows how South Korea is “burning” in the lower right corner (Seoul is the brightest spot). China is equally bright throughout its territory (the opposite part of the photo). But where is North Korea?
No, she didn't drown in the ocean. In fact, the “black mass” between South Korea and China is the desired territory. Also note the Mandarin Demilitarized Zone. Only the capital, Pyongyang, is visible.
While it is difficult to blame North Korea for light pollution, this photo clearly illustrates how most of the country is likely to live without electricity, as well as without everything related to him: heat in winter, cooling, appropriate temperatures in hospitals, etc.