Bizarre image of Russian ‘snow art’ baffles astronaut (PHOTO)
A bizarre image of a snowy Russian landscape covered with dark, angular lines stretching for miles, taken by ISS astronaut Thomas Pesquet, left the Frenchman baffled as he shared the enigmatic snap online.
Pesquet posted the image he captured from the International Space Station to Twitter, describing the picture as “minimalist snow art,” but adding he could not explain the unusual feature.
Minimalist snow art in Russia. I cannot explain these km-long parallel lines https://t.co/o8reRsmhiepic.twitter.com/Nc9cQEc7wu
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 17, 2017
Suggestions poured in from the Twitterati with the majority guessing it was as a result of oil or gas pipelines while others shared more creative explanations.
@Thom_astro I found the artist pic.twitter.com/VlDLVw4lgc
— Chris Sackinger (@ChrisSackinger) March 17, 2017
@Thom_astropic.twitter.com/TDmm8YYwZ3
— Patte de Chat 📚 (@Patte2Chat) March 17, 2017
@Thom_astro@esa Oil and or Gas pipelines?
— Fred (@ScaleJetFred) March 17, 2017
@Thom_astro@esa Is it some kind of code from Putin to Trump?
— hugh claffey (@hughclaffey) March 17, 2017
The astronaut was not content to leave the “enigmatic” sighting as a mystery, however, and reached out to NASA to shed some light on it.
Thanks @NASAEarth for explaining my enigmatic picture! https://t.co/wSj7oi6Cj3https://t.co/1fRS2Vr3U7
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 19, 2017
NASA identified the region as a major shelterbelt crossing the steppes of southern Russia near the Volga River (the Volgograd Region).
The shelterbelt, a line of trees planted to protect crops and reduce the erosion of steppe soils by wind, covers 14 kilometers of land, according to NASA.
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