20 Years Of 9/11: How Satellites Captured Twin Tower Attacks From Space 2 Decades Ago | See Images

<p><strong>New Delhi: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two airplanes crashing into two towers of concrete one after the other, bringing down 110 storeys of each and reducing them to dust, smoke and rubble &mdash; the visuals don&rsquo;t leave you, even though 20 years have passed since September 11, 2001, when the world was shaken by one of the deadliest terror attacks it has ever seen.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 9/11 attacks on the two towers of World Trade Center were captured by countless cameras, by those present in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City on the fateful day and lived to tell the tale through their lenses.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there were some images that were clicked by eyes in the sky. The data visualisation team at the NASA Earth Observatory shared a satellite image 10 years after the attack. The image captured by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA&rsquo;s Earth Observing-1 satellite shows an aerial view of New York City on September 12, 2001, with smoke still billowing out at the WTC attack site.&nbsp;</span></p> <figure class="image"><img style="border-style: solid;" src="https://ift.tt/2X9758y" /> <figcaption>Photo: NASA</figcaption> </figure> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another image, visible from space, shows a plume of smoke rising from the Manhattan area after the attacks. This photo was captured from the International Space Station (ISS) on the morning of September 11, 2001, and it shows New York City and areas around it at the time.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else," Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, ISS was </span><a href="https://ift.tt/3hod2WJ style="font-weight: 400;">quoted as saying</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> after the attacks.</span></p> <figure class="image"><img src="https://ift.tt/3E7la7t" /> <figcaption>Photo: NASA</figcaption> </figure> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to NASA, Culberston posted a </span><a href="https://ift.tt/3tAvxMj style="font-weight: 400;">public letter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the following day narrating his initial thoughts of what happened that day. "The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked," he wrote.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are," Culbertson added.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another true-colour image was taken on September 12, 2001 by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus aboard the Landsat 7 satellite, at around 11:30 am EDT.</span></p> <figure class="image"><img src="https://ift.tt/3hmHoc6" /> <figcaption>Photo: USGS Landsat 7 team</figcaption> </figure> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The attacks killed </span><a href="https://ift.tt/3nrXgxX style="font-weight: 400;">2,753 people</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at the WTC towers site alone. There were two more suicide attacks by terrorist group al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden,&nbsp;on that day. As many as </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">19 militants had hijacked four airplanes, two of which crashed into the twin WTC towers in New York City, one flew into the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane crashed on a field in Pennsylvania. The four attacks left a total of 2,977 people dead.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&nbsp;</span></p>