"You can see the Great Wall of China from the moon." - Is this really true, or a myth?

Question

"You can see the Great Wall of China from the moon." - Is this really true, or a myth?

Answer 1

Urban myth I'm afraid.

Answer 2

d**n Hannah beat me to it. I thought you could see the actual wall until Thursday, when Mock the Week informed me I was wrong.

It was Mock the Week. David was saying that they should hoover it ^_^ Bit confusing as Russell was on Would I Lie to You? the next day.

Answer 3

it can be both

Answer 4

You're watching the Olympics too?

My sister just asked me this.

You can't - you can only see the soot and dust that's formed around it.

They were talking about it on last week's "Would I Lie To You" and David Mitchell said that the wall itself isn't visible, but the dust clumped around it is.

LauraLorLor: Sorry about that - was it Mock The Week or was it Would I Lie To You?

Answer 5

This is true if you ever look at satellite images on the web

Answer 6

Ah, your watching the olympics too :]

harhar!

i think it is as far as i know then again i actually visited it about 6 days ago and its very long however it isnt that wide to be honest. So the probablility of being able to see it its self is very small i think.

Google images maybe?

Answer 7

Total myth, theres nothing man made that can be seen fron space, apparently you can barely make out countries, have a look on google earth!

Answer 8

NASA says, "The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye." Thus, it'd be tough to spot the Great Wall of China or any other object from the moon. Furthermore, from the moon, even the continents are barely visible.

NASA astronaut Alan Bean is quoted in Tom Burnam's book More Misinformation...

"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."

Answer 9

It's a myth - the person who first published this, Richard Halliburton, did so in 1938, before any man-made satellites existed, before any man had even been in Earth's orbit.

Some people say that it's the only object visible from "space" - as in Earth's orbit, which is also not true.  Several man-made objects are visible from orbit, including dams, bridges and the Kennedy Space Center.  But from Earth's orbit, the Great Wall is barely visible - it's too thin, and it's the same color as the rocks and soil around it.

And if it's barely visible from orbit, logically it would be impossible to see it from much further away on the moon.

Answer 10

i think its true as they have been pics of it from space unless its a conspiracy like the moon landing lol

Answer 11

its a myth apparently

Answer 12

A myth.

Answer 13

you can see it from space but i dont know about the moon.

Answer 14

no it's totally false

and this has been proven many years ago