Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
Check out this car absolutely rocketing through the desert in Afghanistan - the dust plume it’s kicking up is over a kilometre long!
This is actually Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, which as well as playing a pivotal part in the War against Terror is also likely responsible for as much as 42% of the world’s opium production.
So basically there’s any number of reasons why this car might be travelling at such a speed out here.
Thanks to H20s.
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It’s coming out of what seems to be an absolutely huge span of fields so it’s most probably drug traffickers or something.
Doubt it’s our boys, as they usually travel in convoys or groups of 2 or more.
Now all we need is a physics geek that’s willing to calculate how fast he would have to be traveling to produce a tail that long. Any takers?
there’s a brown truck following him, a little slower
the brown truck is probably farther behind because he can’t see in the dust cloud
He doesn’t necessarily have to be traveling obscenely fast. I would think how fine and loose the dust is would play just as big a factor as speed. I’d say he’s definitely going 60+ mph though.
Apparently, the physics geeks at the Pentagon have already studied this matter…
http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA202899&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
Happy reading!
Well, I guess there’s not much police in this area. Actually I doubt, there’s a speed limit in the desert, because there’s pretty much nothing you could hit.
So I don’t think there’s a special reasen, that car is driving so fast.
Very cool sight though!
Notice the ghosting of the car, just in front of it? This is a common sight on satellite photographs of aircraft but not on ground vehicles. The car must be going very fast.
Rocket-car?
Further evidence of the speed this car is doing: Here’s another car travelling on the same ‘road’ just to the north, and yet there’s absolutely no dust trail at all visible this time…
(Yes I suppose it could have stopped, but would you stop around here?)
Say hi to the folks setting up shop there now. Any idea when this picture was taken?
You guys know that War on Terror should always have quotes around it right? “War on Terror” a.k.a. f*cking joke. or NeoCon scaremongering of the sheeple.
Yeah “War on Terror”. Small groups of extremist carry out terrorist attacks. Therefore, invade a secular Arab country that (despite its then leader’s appalling human rights record) has never had any thing to do with fanatical terrorists. What I don’t understand is why relitives of the the victims of 9/11 seem to be happy to have the deaths of their loved ones abused in this way.
It goes without saying that you can’t defeat terrorism with conventional forces.
Guys, if you’re going to try to turn this into a political blog, at least get your facts straight. Iraq was invaded because of the WMD’s that weren’t there, not the terrorists that weren’t there. That being said, let’s try to stay if not on topic then at least within the realm of relevancy. By no means am I trying to defend Bush or his actions, but this isn’t the place. We’re one rabid Bill O’Reilly fan away from a flame war, and I’d really rather not see that happen here. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels that way.
Alex
..for a wee?
It’s not like anyone’s going to see you, right? Except maybe the satellite…
It’s probably Osama Bin Laden, in his souped up Delorion out-running the US forces. No wonder he can’t be caught.