Truth behind ‘super creepy’ formation spotted on Google Maps
The truth behind a peculiar hexagon spotted on Australia’s coastline through Google Map’s satellite imagery has been revealed.
People were baffled after a mum shared photos of an alien-like hexagon near Exmouth on Western Australia’s North West Cape on her Instagram on Monday.
The satellite image shows the thin orange outline of a hexagon, with a number of other lines running inside the mysterious shape, creating a futuristic-looking pattern.
“Someone explain this. I’m scared. I found this today,” Vanessa Hammond captioned a video of the shape shared with her 59,000 followers.
Ms Hammond added the futuristic pattern was “seriously freaky”, while a follower added, “[It’s] super creepy when you look at it from above”.
Truth behind mysterious shape near Exmouth
One of Ms Hammond’s followers suggested the pattern was made up of communication towers and the shape had something to do with the way they transmit, while the mum discovered it was Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt.
Located just six kilometres north of Exmouth, the role of the base was to provide very low frequency radio transmission to Royal Australian Navy and United States Navy ships.
According to the book Raven Rock, which details presidential, military and political history, author Garrett Graff claims the station is made up of 13 radio towers.
The tallest, Tower Zero, sits in the middle while six other towers are placed in a hexagon around it.
According to Western Australian tourism site Australia’s Coral Coast, the base was used in World War II to “pass on messages between Australian and United States’ command centres and their ships and submarines”.
One of Ms Hammond’s followers told her it was one of the biggest communication bases in the world.
‘Game changing’ telescope moved to communication station
In 2013, it was announced the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would relocate the Space Surveillance Telescope, designed to track object’s in earth’s orbit, to the Australian base.
Space and astronomy news website Space.com reported in 2016 DARPA was handing operations of the telescope over the Air Force Space Command ahead of its transfer to Australia.
“The Australian government will build a new dome for the telescope at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia,” DARPA telescope program manager Lindsay Millard told Space.com.
“Air Force Space Command will disassemble the telescope, ship it to the new site and assemble it there.”
The telescope was moved to the communication station this year and Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said in April the telescope was a “game changer”.
“The world-leading, 360-degree telescope will enable Defence to better track and identify objects and threats in space including space debris, as well as predict and avoid potential collisions,” she said in a statement.
The telescope is undergoing extensive testing and is expected to be operational in 2022.
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