2 Women's World Cup stadiums spied from space (satellite photos)
The FIFA Women's World Cup is underway, and we just got a birds-eye view of two of the stadiums that are hosting the soccer action.
On Thursday (July 20), San Francisco-based company Planet tweeted out satellite photos of Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand and Stadium Australia (also known as Accor Stadium) in Sydney.
On that same day, the venues hosted the first two games of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: New Zealand versus Norway in Eden Park and Australia against Ireland at the Sydney site. The home teams won 1-0 in both cases, as Planet noted.
"Two home team victories to kick off opening day of @FIFAWWC at @edenparknz and @AccorStadium. The two games drew a record crowd of 117,921 in attendance. Congrats to @TheMatildas and @NZ_Football Ferns!" Planet wrote in the tweet, referring to the nicknames of the two sides.
Related: The top 10 views of Earth from space
Planet is perhaps best known for its huge constellation of Doves, shoebox-sized cubesats that beam home detailed imagery of our home planet.
But the two stadium shots were captured by larger, even sharper-eyed spacecraft known as SkySats. And they aren't in-game action shots; Eden Park was photographed on May 24, and Stadium Australia was captured on July 10, Planet representatives told Space.com via email.
Two home team victories to kick off opening day of @FIFAWWC at @edenparknz and @AccorStadium. 🏆 The two games drew a record crowd of 117,921 in attendance.Congrats to @TheMatildas and @NZ_Football Ferns! ⚽#FIFAWWC #BeyondGreatness #FIFAWomensWorldCup2023 pic.twitter.com/vRIKZhAyzvJuly 20, 2023
RELATED STORIES:
— Photos of Earth by Planet's satellites (gallery)
— See the 2022 FIFA World Cup from space in this dazzling satellite image
— Watch cosmonauts play soccer in space to celebrate 2018 World Cup (video)
The FIFA Women's World Cup runs through Aug. 20, when the championship game will be played. Like the men's World Cup, the tournament is held every four years. This year, Australia and New Zealand are co-hosting, with games being played at 10 different venues across the two nations.
The United States has won the past two Women's World Cups and is a strong contender to threepeat. The squad comes into the tournament ranked number one in the world and plays its first game, against Vietnam, tonight (July 21) at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT on July 22) at Eden Park.
