When I first saw this image, looking suspiciously like a spaceship partially buried by land, I assumed it was a piece of concept art for a sci-fi novel or game. As curiosity pushed me to investigate further, I realized that not only is it a photograph, it’s taken from space of Earth.
This photo of the Richat Structure of Mauritania was taken by Chris Hadfield, currently in orbit around Earth in the International Space Station. Chris is the first Canadian to walk in space and posts many of the pictures he takes on his Twitter.
Turns out the Richat Structure isn’t a spaceship after all, but a 40-km section of sedimentary rock that was eroded sort of the opposite of a jawbreaker with different layers: it’s dome-shaped due to the center layers being of denser rock.
The Richat Structure resides in the Sahara Desert on the African continent. I think this is one bullseye the ODST’s don’t wanna hit, but it sure looks pretty from space.
~CHa0s