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F-15E Strike Eagle Looks Like It’s Flying Over Mars in Amazing Close-Up

We, humans, understand what a desert is. We have plenty of them here on Earth to threaten our survival and fuel our dreams of adventure should we choose to roam one. We mostly perceive these places as being golden in color, a hue owed to the sand they’re made of, and the way they shine when light hits them.
F-15E Strike Eagle flying over Southwest Asia 17 photos
Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Trevor McBride
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We know of red-ish deserts too, thanks to the wealth of images we have at our disposal, showing neighboring planet Mars. In fact, such a deep orange tint on a planetary surface is mostly associated with Mars because of these photos, and that makes the main pic of this piece particularly strange to look at.

The star of the photo is an F-15E Strike Eagle, a type of military aircraft we’ve talked about plenty over the past year here on autoevolution. It is particularly detailed in this close-up pic, thanks to its proximity to the Nikon camera a staff sergeant was pointing at it from very close by.

The airplane was snapped on film as it severed its connection with a KC-135 Stratotanker deployed with the 350th Expeditionary Aircraft Refueling Squadron, after a refueling mission.

This whole thing happened over an undisclosed area in Southwest Asia, and we get to see a lot of sand down on the ground, behind the plane. Because it’s a red-ish kind of sand we’re looking at, one can easily get the impression we’re looking at a piece of Mars the plane is flying over.

That impression is further enhanced by the large rock outcropping visible behind the planet and the countless small rocks that dot the surface.

This breathtaking image was taken in February last year, but brought back into focus by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) when it released its Year in Photos album at the beginning of 2022.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows other F-15 variants.

About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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