NASA satellite captures beautiful image of Polish forest

Nov 29, 2013 13:40 GMT  ·  By

The forest you see in this image, called the Niepołomice Forest, is located in Poland, and has been protected by authorities for centuries. In Polish, its name signifies something that is nearly impossible to destroy. The forest has not yet experienced human encroachment and widespread damage.

Niepołomice Forest was decreed to be a part of the royal estate as far back as 1242. Since that time, whatever authorities were in charge of the country found different uses for it, but never opened it up for development or building. As such, it lies at the core of an urbanized area, but shows no signs of urbanization itself.

At many points throughout history, it was used as a hunting reserve, where people could come and hunt for aurochs, wolves, bison and bears. The trees you see above are what remains of a massive forest that once occupied this entire part of Poland.

The photo was snapped via the Operational Land Imager (OLI) instrument on the NASA Landsat 8 spacecraft, on September 8, 2013. The satellite, the eight in the program, was launched on February 11, 2013, and is managed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).