Can You See the Great Wall of China from the Outer Space or the Moon?
The Great Wall of China, an outstanding military defence project in ancient China, is also one of the eight wonders of the world. There is a popular saying, “The Great Wall of China can be sen from space or the moon.” Is that true?
Rumor Has that The Great Wall of China Can be Seen from the Moon/Space
The space-based myth that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the Moon has existed for nearly 300 years.
First in 1754, English antiquary and physician William Stukeley first suggested that the Great Wall of China may be visible from the Moon due to its gigantic length in his Family Memoirs.
The literary description of "the Great Wall of China visible on the moon" was again given by the English missionary Robert Morrison in his China: A Dialogue in 1823. This was in fact a metaphor, and at that time man had not yet entered space.
Later this hypothesis was mentioned and upheld by journalist Henry Norman in his book The Peoples and Politics of the Far East in 1895. Since then, it became a classic fallacy in Western literature.
A 1932 Ripley's Believe It or Not! Cartoon strip adopted the same idea that the wall is "the mightiest work of man, the only one that would be visible to the human eye from the moon." It claimed the Wall as "the mightiest work of man, the only one that would be visible to the human eye from the moon."
In 1938, Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley speculated on a radio programme that “theoretically, the Great Wall should be visible as a pencil line from the moon's point of view”. This hypothesis was reduced to a positive conclusion by the media.
In 1987, it was written in a former Chinese language textbook that, when looking at the Earth from outer space, one could distinguish two structures, the Dutch sea wall and the Great Wall of China.After continuous spread of the idea in many years, though without any clear and convincing evidence, the presumption that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made creation that can be seen from the Moon and outer originated.
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What Is the Truth?
The answer is likely to be “No”.
With the advancement of aerospace technologies, many astronauts were sent to the low orbits of the Earth, and even the Moon. They all mentioned that they couldn’t see the Great Wall of China with the naked eyes from the outer space.Apollo 12 (mission in 1969) astronaut Alan Bean once said, “The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either.”
Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt (4 missions between 1991 and 1996) mentioned, “We look for the Great Wall of China. Although we can see things as small as airport runways, the Great Wall seems to be made largely of materials that have the same color as the surrounding soil. Despite persistent stories that it can be seen from the moon, the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles up!”
In an interview on 4 May 2000, Tito, the first space tourist, said that when he flew over China, he was able to see its rivers and mountains clearly. Unfortunately, however, he was unable to witness the Great Wall.
The China’s first Taikonaut, Yang Liwei, flew into space in 2003, he also said that he couldn’t see the structure of the Great Wall from the capsule window.Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who spent five months aboard the International Space Station in 2012-2013, reiterated the facts about the Great Wall’s visibility from space. “The Great Wall of China is not visible from orbit with the naked eye,” Hadfield said on Twitter. “It’s too narrow, and it follows the natural contours and colours (of the landscape).”
Since the wall looks a lot like the stone and soil that surround it, it is difficult to discern with the human eye even from low Earth orbit, and is difficult to figure out in most orbital photos. Even though we may possibly see a certain section under the perfect weather condition, it is not the only man-made object we can spot from high up there. Many structures such as highways, airports, bridges, dams, and big buildings like Egyptian Pyramids of Giza can be found on the pictures taken from the low Earth orbit.
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Can the Great Wall of China be seen from the International Space Station?
The Great Wall is definitely invisible by the unaided human eyes from the Moon. However, this does not detract from the significance of this astounding ancient Chinese project.
Can the Great Wall be seen from the International Space Station (ISS), which is only 400 kilometres above the ground? In fact, American astronaut William Pogue conducted an in-depth study of this very question on the ISS's Spacelab from 1973-1974. In his book “How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space?” he said that at an altitude of about 300 miles, although the Great Wall is not recognisable to the naked eye, it can be seen with the help of a telescope.
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Scientific Explanation
The lowest limit of altitude in space is about 105 to 110 kilometres. Even for a round object with a diameter of 10 metres, the furthest distance the human eye can see it is only 36 kilometres.
Despite its length, the Great Wall is not even as wide as an ordinary two-lane road. Trying to see the Great Wall from space is like seeing a strand of hair from thousands of miles away, and is indeed impossible.
Physicists have also come to the scientific conclusion that we cannot see the Great Wall from outer space with the naked eye alone. Unless we use optical equipment, just as we observe the stars.