Strange lines in the Russian steppes puzzled French astronaut
French astronaut Thomas Sands, located on the International space station, posted a photograph of a strange broken lines in the steppes in Russia. He stated that he cannot explain their purpose.
“Minimalist snow art in Russia. I can’t explain why these many kilometers parallel lines,” wrote the sand under the picture posted on the Flickr website.
Minimalist snow art in Russia. I cannot explain these km-long parallel lines https://t.co/o8reRsmhie pic.twitter.com/Nc9cQEc7wu
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) 17 Mar 2017
In the comments he explained that it is a protective forest belt Belaya Kalitva length of over 700 km. It is designed to protect the steppes of the European part of Russia from droughts and dry winds. On a similar project in Russia began to think even under Catherine II, and the planted forest area has already begun under Stalin.
The origins of the forest Belaya Kalitva — Penza takes from the left Bank of the Seversky Donets river, near the farm of the Borodinov and ends at 16 km South of Penza, in a small village a New stove. Now the length of the landing is 708,5 kilometers, consisting of three parallel forest belts with a width of about 60 meters at a distance of about 350 m from each other. Total width of protective forest plantations would be about 700 metres.
Details about the first man in space — special projects in Mail.Ru