Can any man-made object on earth be seen from the moon?

gonnzo

No. "According to NASA, the earth as seen from the moon takes up less than one degree of arc in the sky. Basically it looks like a big blue marble. No man-made detail can be seen at all; sometimes even the continents are barely distinguishable. The NASA folks, I gather, are getting a little tired of hearing about the Great Wall of China. 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." http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/417/is-the-great-wall-of-china-the-only-manmade-object-you-can-see-from-space http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwall.asp Apr 20 09, 6:07 AM

star_gazer

An above ground nuclear explosion might be visable from the moon, but I don't know if that would count as an "object." http://www.bautforum.com/archive/index.php/t-71087.html Apr 20 09, 8:27 AM

zbeckabee

In support of star_gazer's post -- Though it is probably not in direct line with the question, I'm tacking on a reverse scenario: The US Air Force developed a top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon as a display of military might at the height of the Cold War. 'It was clear the main aim of the proposed detonation was a PR exercise and a show of one-upmanship. The Air Force wanted a mushroom cloud so large it would be visible on earth,' he said yesterday. 'The US was lagging behind in the space race.' 'The explosion would obviously be best on the dark side of the moon and the theory was that if the bomb exploded on the edge of the moon, the mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the sun.' The bomb would have been at least as large as the one used on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver Apr 20 09, 9:29 AM