FACT CHECK #OXAIOI49

WHAT WE FOUND

NASA and Apollo astronauts have confirmed that the Great Wall of China is not visible from the Moon with the naked eye. According to NASA, even from Low Earth Orbit at approximately 100 to 300 miles up, the structure is difficult or impossible to see without high-powered lenses. From the Moon, located roughly 238,000 miles away, only large scale features like continents and weather patterns are distinguishable. Astronaut Neil Armstrong stated multiple times that he could not see any human made objects from the lunar surface. The myth of the wall visibility was popularized as early as 1754 by William Stukeley and later by a 1932 Ripley Believe It or Not cartoon, decades before the first spaceflight. Modern astronauts including Chris Hadfield and Yang Liwei have also reported being unable to identify the wall from orbit without assistance.

SOURCES

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THE READING