The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Science
Great Wall from Space
 great wall update




From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.science
Subject: Great Wall of China seen from Space
Date: 14 May 1996 21:20:16 GMT

In the 3 May 1996 issue of SCIENCE there's a brief note in the "Random Samples" column about what seems to be the first successful imaging of the Great Wall of China from space. J J Plaut of JPL is cited as saying that no astronaut and no standard satellite imagery has been able to see it before.

But on a 1994 shuttle flight, a special radar detector has turned out to have successfully imaged it. Some Chinese colleagues visited the imaged locations. It turns out, according to Plaut, that some of "the wall is in such a decayed state that if you didn't really know where to look you may not be able to see it."

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From: carthur@independent.co.uk (Charles Arthur)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Great Wall of China seen from Space
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 17:56:29 +0000

In article <4nateg$u3g@netnews.upenn.edu>, weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) wrote:

> In the 3 May 1996 issue of SCIENCE there's a brief note in the "Random
> Samples" column about what seems to be the first successful imaging of
> the Great Wall of China from space. J J Plaut of JPL is cited as saying
> that no astronaut and no standard satellite imagery has been able to
> see it before.

Arg. Let's get it straight. (I had to in order to write the story for the newspaper that employs me [_The Independent_]; it appeared on Saturday April 20. (Page 3, actually, nice big pic.))

What was seen which hadn't been seen before was a remnant of the Wall which had been built centuries before the present part. The previously invisible part had been covered with sand. (It's in a desert region.) It was detected using imaging radar.

This is not to say, though, that you can't er, image the GWOC with the naked eye from orbit. I have rung NASA specifically to ask this question - I was actually disbelieving of a TV advert over here which claimed you could see the GWOC from orbit. And lo, the NASA spokeswoman, she said that the reports from astronauts are that you can see it.

However, I was not able to establish whether it's visible by naked eye from the Moon.

Charles "might go there to check if can fly first class" Arthur


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