Astronaut Thomas Pesquet shared a photo of the Suez Canal on Twitter taken from space on June 13. To capture the man-made beauty in its entirety, the astronaut, who is aboard the International Space Station, took at least 100 images at maximum zoom level and then merged them into one. Sharing the picture on his Twitter account, he wrote that he could really see the canal from space with the naked eye.
The picture is actually a digitally constructed collage, in which the Suez canal is visible with its two parallel waterways and five intersections. The sea-level water channel can be seen connecting the Red Sea and Mediterranean sea. The picture was taken from a height of 1400 kilometres and with a camera lens with a focal length equivalent to 1600 mm.
‘Ever Given’, the massive cargo ship which blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week in March, is also visible in the photo.
LA construction humaine que l’on peut vraiment voir depuis l’espace à l’œil nu : le canal de #Suez reconstitué à partir de 100 clichés. 🇪🇬 🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢https://t.co/1AvYZ3xxxD #MissionAlpha pic.twitter.com/oLE2OPF1Ln— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) June 12, 2021
People on Twitter were stunned by the clarity and thanked Pesquet for sharing the viral picture. In the top right section of the picture, interesting red rectangles quickly catch the viewers’ eyes. When one Twitter user pointed them out asking what they were, another user replied saying that those were coastal grassland areas known as salt marshes.
Here is how people reacted to the space traveller’s tweet:
Je ne sais pas qui travaille sur le montage de tes photos mais moi qui suis passionnée de photographie, elles sont d’une précision à couper le souffle et je sais à quel point c’est un boulot qui demande du temps et de la patience😍💖👍📸 merci pour tous ces magnifiques partages💖— Alycia Caryn (@CarynAlycia) June 12, 2021
Vous avez vraiment de la chance d’observer notre planète du ciel. Merci de nous faire partage les photos . Par contre est ce que vous pouvez prendre une photo des Antilles et plus particulièrement la Martinique 👍🏿— Juan Marco Maxime (@zouklover95) June 12, 2021
One user wrote that she really liked that Pesquet took out time to take beautiful pictures and inspire fellow humans that live on earth. Some Twitter users kept asking the astronaut if the Great Wall of China is actually visible from space. However, according to NASA, the great wall of China is not visible from space with the naked eye. It can only be seen using magnification when the weather is clear.
Pesquet is on Mission Alpha by the European Space Agency, under which he is conducting many experiments on the International Space Station. In his spare time, Pesquet likes to look at the earth through Cupola windows, the space station’s window to the Earth. It is from there, he takes the pictures that he keeps sharing.
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