Issue 83: World’s Largest Constructions
July 6, 2023
In this week’s issue:
- Some of the world’s largest constructed objects
- Rains in Mali
- Tioga Pass in Yosemite
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Feature Story: World’s Largest: Constructions
At some point in your life, you’ve likely heard that the Great Wall of China is the only human-made object visible from outer space. If you believed it, then congratulations! You’ve been duped. Astronauts gazing at our blue marble with their bare eyeballs can really only make out high-contrast objects. And when you introduce Earth observation satellites, well it should come as no surprise that there’s a lot you can see from orbit. And since we believe in going big or going home, this week we rounded up some of the largest structures ever built that can, in fact, be seen from outer space.
The “Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope” (FAST, for short) is a five-hundred-meter aperture spherical radio telescope in China. Its aim, though, is more creative than its name. FAST — the largest radio telescope — is gathering radio waves to learn about dark matter, gravitational waves, radio bursts, and to eavesdrop on potential alien chatter.
The world’s largest swimming pool (and the most difficult location for a game of Marco Polo) is located in a resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Hopefully you never make a mistake so large it’s visible from space. But at least you’ll have some company if you do. In 2015, Volkswagen was caught cheating on their emissions test. The company has been buying back hundreds of thousands of cars in the following years and gathering them in giant lots like the one seen in this Californian desert.
Rogers Dry Lake is, well, dry. Meaning you can draw on it and be pretty sure the markings won’t disappear. Which is exactly what the folks at NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center did with this giant compass rose.
While the world’s most complicated maze is figuring out the right documents to bring to the DMV, the largest is Italy’s Labirinto della Masone. It’s a fitting tribute for the literary genius and labyrinthian-writer, Jorge Luis Borges.
Dubai perhaps has as many “world’s largest” records as it does Lamborghinis. One of its lesser-known record-holders is the Dubai Miracle Garden, which has a whopping 45 million flowers.
China’s Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant and largest attempt at controlling the power of the Yangtze River.
Here at Planet, we’re big fans of large, spherical objects. Which is why we’re including Sweden’s Avicii Arena on the list. It’s the world’s largest spherical building with a volume of 605,000 cubic meters.
Most of this issue has included modern constructions, which makes sense to some degree. But our ancient ancestors had some mighty ambitions as well. China’s Forbidden City, constructed in the early 15th century, is the world’s largest palace complex. It’s a fun area to view from space, as its buildings are intentionally constructed along a north-south axis and all arranged to demonstrate imperial power.
We’ll return later this northern-hemisphere summer with the follow-up piece to this issue of the largest natural objects on Earth. And spoiler alert, everything’s going to be a lot bigger. Until then, get out there and enjoy the big wide world.
Remote Sensations: Rains in Africa
Something about rain filling desert waterways really thrills us. So here’s some blessed rains down in Africa from earlier this year.
Change of the Week: Tioga Pass
Business is a-booming for California snow plows this year as the aftermath of the past winter’s heavy snowpack continues to block roadways in the Sierra Nevada. Despite being well into summer, Yosemite’s eastern entrance (Tioga Pass) was still closed. Check out the plows’ progress as they cleared the summit of the road over the past few weeks. Although most of the snow is gone, avalanche risk and damage to the asphalt and roadside facilities are keeping the route closed for now.
