Riddle solved? Mysterious objects spotted by Google Map satellite in Gobi desert explained
By Rob Waugh
Last updated at 9:02 AM on 17th November 2011
A Google Maps satellite spotted a series of bizarre structures during a sweep of the Gobi desert in China - and the mysterious objects sparked a wave of speculation that they could be anything from 'codes' to be read from space to practice targets modelled on US cities.
But it now seems likely that the structures are used to calibrate China's spy satellites, according to Natalie Wolchover of website Life's Little Mysteries.
She spoke to Jonathon Hill, a research technician at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used in Nasa's Mars missions - who said the symbols are near-identical to US targets used to calibrate Corona spy satellites in the Sixties.
The existence of these calibration targets may seem suspicious, but Hill said it really isn't; China was already known to operate spy satellites, along with many other countries, including the U.S.
'An [American] example I found just now is a calibration target for the Corona spy satellites, built back in the 1960s, down in Casa Grande, Arizona,' Hill told Wolchover.
'The grids of zigzagging white lines seen in two of the images - the strangest of the various desert structures - are spy satellite calibration targets. Satellite cameras focus on the grids, which measure approximately 0.65 miles wide by 1.15 miles long, and use them to orient themselves in space,' writes Wolchover.
The internet buzz around the objects has been intensified by the fact they are located on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang in northwestern China - an area that the superpower uses to build military, space and nuclear equipment.
There are burnt out cars and planes around some of the symbols, further fuelling speculation about a sinister military purpose. In fact, some of the sites are less than 100 miles from Jiuquan, where China’s space programme headquarters and launch pads can be found.
Some internet users had been trying to overlay one of the strange structures on to various U.S. city maps, worried that the symbols could be used as targets to allow China to target bombs and other weapons more precisely on U.S. cities.
Others pointed out that if China wanted to attack a U.S. city, it doesn’t need a practice map in the desert.
What was also fuelling the mystery was that it was just too difficult to tell what the structures are made of – whether they are painted on or dug into the landscape.
However, upon zooming in, planes and burnt-out trucks can be seen on some of the photographs, which hints that at least some of the symbols may be used in military training, or that they may indeed be targets of some kind.
This is the second time in a number of days that Google has published photographs of possibly secret facilities.
Last week the search giant published pictures of Iranian facilities which the UN says may be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Satellite images of Arak and Natanz show changes to the facilities in the areas when compared with images taken in October 2010.
The overhead pictures were released by Google following a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency which expressed 'serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme'.
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