ESA showed the Great Barrier Reef from space
Kyiv • UNN
The Sentinel-2 space mission captured a part of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. The reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is under threat due to climate change.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Sentinel-2 Earth remote sensing mission has shown part of one of the world's natural wonders - the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea off the east coast of Australia. The image was published on the ESA website, UNN reports.
Details
It is noted that the Great Barrier Reef stretches for almost 2,300 km and covers an area of over 344,000 square kilometers. Despite its name, the Great Barrier Reef is not a single reef, but an interconnected system of about 3,000 reefs and 900 coral islands separated by narrow passages.
A biodiversity area as important as rainforests, the reef contains over 1,500 species of tropical fish, 400 species of corals, hundreds of species of birds and algae, and thousands of marine animals, including sharks, barracudas and turtles.
They added that in recognition of its importance, the reef was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981.
"Coral reefs around the world regularly suffer from climate change, pollution, ocean acidification and poaching. In addition, they are increasingly threatened by coral bleaching, which occurs when the algae that make up the coral die, causing it to turn white. This phenomenon is associated with rising water temperatures, low salinity and high levels of sunlight," the statement said.
Recall
Recently, ESA recorded the awakening of a black hole in the galaxy SDSS1335+0728 at a distance of 300 million light years. It suddenly began emitting powerful X-rays.
