Satellite photograph shows Burning Man from space

A satellite has photographed what Burning Man looks like from space.

Taken as part of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and acquired by the European Space Agency (ESA), the image was taken on day two of the festival.

While passing the festival site of the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, this satellite image shows the vast scale of the 70,000-person festival and its famous shape.

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The festival organisers designed this giant C-shape in 1999 as part of the celebrations around the millennium. Inside the shape is the festival’s centre known as the Playa.

According to the Governing, the entire perimeter of the site is seven square miles, but much of this area is open space and art installations.

The satellite which captured this new image of the festival is part of two polar-orbiting satellites which are monitoring plant growth and forests and other changes in the land on Earth.

The mission is also gathering information on pollution and images of floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides.

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This year’s Burning Man faced issues with selling tickets, forcing the festival to open up tickets to non-registered buyers for the first time.

Previous editions have been known to sell out in just 30 minutes, yet this year the festival failed to sell all its tickets.

Many attributed the lack of ticket sales to last year's event, which saw thousands stranded on the site due to torrential rain.

The 2023 edition left attendees unable to manoeuvre in vehicles due to the thick mud and, therefore, were told to remain on site until the ground had dried.

Check out the satellite image of Burning Man below.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Multimedia Editor, follow her on Twitter.