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Allison JacksonDecember 13, 2012 19:39
NASA makes error the size of Everest
The US space agency wrongly identified a summit in India as Mt Everest.
The US space agency wrongly identified a summit in India as Mt Everest.
As mistakes go, it was a big one.
NASA admitted today that it had mistaken a summit in India for Mount Everest, which sits on the China-Nepal border, the Agence France-Presse reported.
The US space agency initially said a photo taken by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko from the International Space State was the world’s tallest peak.
Except it wasn’t Everest.
It was Saser Muztagh in the Karakoram Range of the Kashmir region of India, the BBC reported.
Nepalese Himalayas expert and journalist Kunda Dixit spotted the error after the photo spread via Twitter and was picked up by global media outlets.
But his initial guess was wrong too.
@ujjwalacharya @pc0101 Sorry guys, but the tall peak with the shadow in the middle is not Mt Everest. My guess: Xixapangma in Tibet
— Kunda Dixit (@kundadixit) December 11, 2012
This is the photo taken by Malenchenko.
In Malenchenko's defence, spotting Mt Everest – which is 8,848 metres (29,028 feet) high – when you are 370 kilometers above Earth is not easy.
Astronaut Ron Garan, who lived on the International Space Station last year, told The Atlantic on Monday: "No time is allotted in our work day normally for Earth pictures. So if we want to capture a specific point on the ground we have to first know exactly when we will fly over that spot," he said
Garan posted this on Twitter earlier today.
We r still looking 4 a good view of illusive #Everest #FromSpace Apparently Yuri's ISS pic's not Everest It's Saser Muztagh #Sorry4Confusion
— Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron) December 13, 2012
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/121213/nasa-makes-error-the-size-everest
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