Friday Factoid: Looking from the Moon
For today's Friday Factoid, I'd like to ask...
"What man-made artefact can be seen from the moon?"
If, like 99% of individuals, you answered with the Great Wall of China...
... You'd be wrong.
The moon is -- ohhhhh -- around 250,000 miles away. And from that distance, you really cannot see the Great Wall of China.
Admittedly, I haven't actually checked, but I can take a pretty good guess. Indeed, astronauts confirm you can barely even see the continents.
But... You CAN see the Great Wall from space. Space is actually much nearer than most of us think.
In fact, it's about 60 miles above your head right now.
And from THAT height, you can see many different man-made objects. Such as motorways, ships, railways, cities, fields, and even certain buildings. Oh, and the Great Wall of China.
Even Trivia Pursuit thinks there's a point in space where only the Great Wall is visible. It's wrong. Never trust a board game.
In brief: The Great Wall of China may be really quite great.
But you can't see it from the moon. Period.
Labels: factoids
by Karl
4:53 AM
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