Spy Photos
5. Soviet Union, 1986
Imagery taken by the French satellite SPOT marked the first use of
commercial satellite imagery by a news organization (ABC News) to
independently confirm a major news story. This was significant
because the Soviets were denying that the nuclear accident at
Chernobyl had taken place. Satellite imagery, it was now clear,
could show events and places in countries where the news media was
denied access. This is a combined SPOT-Eosat image of Chernobyl; the
red dot is a thermal signature revealing the extreme heat of the
reactor meltdown.