this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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[–] j5906 35 points 3 days ago (4 children)
[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 41 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Those photos are from planes.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Probably, but the entire idea of "you can see it from space" is stupid anyways. Its only meaningful if its with the naked eye and the distance is specified. You can see anything from space if you have enough optical zoom...

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago

You can see anything from space if you have enough optical zoom...

Naw, there's theoretical a maximum resolution, iirc it's a few centimeters. Too much air in the way diffracting the light

[–] peteypete420@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Planes? I had always assumed it was satellites.

[–] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 days ago

Satellites have adequate resolution for imaging large areas with high coverage, but aside of stuff like spy satellites they don't usually image smaller areas in high resolution all that well. Most of the closer up images on places like Google Maps are aerial photos.

I'm in Finland and when Google Maps first launched we only got low resolution satellite images and some aerial photos of a few cities. The difference was pretty clear.

[–] 5in1k@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

In the bottom middle of the screen it tells you the surveyor. At least it used to I haven’t checked in a while.

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago

You can see people's backyard trampolines.

[–] CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, you can't. This is what earth looks like from space... https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/ most of google maps uses airplane aerial shots.

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Literally, yes you can, on that specific website's satellite imagery. Bloody thing's over 10 km wide, it's the size of a large city. I can still easily spot it on my screen if I zoom far enough out to also include Edinburgh and Riyad!

The only way not to see it from space would be to look in the wrong place or when it is cloudy.

[–] CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What am I looking at? The white dot?

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The oval beige thing that takes up 1/5th of the width of the screenshot.

[–] CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is 10km wide? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_293 Also, I don't see any beige oval that takes up 20% of the screen.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 1 points 2 days ago

I counted 8 of them on site.