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Even the game, Trivial Pursuit claims that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible by NASA astronauts from space or from the moon with the naked eye. It's a space urban legend. While many man-made objects are visible, the Great Wall of China generally isn't, at least to the unaided eye in low Earth orbit. It certainly isn't visible from the Moon.
The visible wall theory was tarnished in 2004 with the launch of Chinese Cosmonaut, Yang Liwei. According to the Associated Press, "For decades, the Chinese propagated the myth that their most famous creation was visible from space. Elementary-school textbooks in the world's most populous nation still proclaim that the structure can be seen by the naked eye of an orbiting cosmonaut." Yang Liwei, said he couldn’t see the historic structure. There was even talk about rewriting textbooks that espouse the theory, a formidable task in the Earth’s most populous nation.
The idea popped up again when astronaut Leroy Chiao pointed his camera at the Earth from International Space Station. Images taken of Inner Mongolia about 200 miles north of Beijing were determined to show small sections of the wall.
The photos, taken with a digital camera and a 180mm lens, and later with a 400mm lens, were greeted with relief and rejoicing by the Chinese. Chiao himself said he didn't see the wall, and wasn't sure if the picture showed it.
From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.
However, when leaving the earth's orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. 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.
Regarding the origination of the story The Straight Dope's pundit Cecil Adams says, "Nobody knows exactly where the story got started, although some think it was speculation by some bigshot during an after-dinner speech in the early days of the space program."
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."
For more information, please visit Great Wall of China Guide.
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