Most people who get a glimpse of The Sphere are standing on the ground in Las Vegas. The world’s most viral entertainment venue continues to blow minds with its remarkable visuals both on the exosphere and inside the 18,000-person arena.
However, the giant glowing ball of LED lights has a reach that goes far beyond the surface of the earth! It is also a spectacle for everyone and anyone who flies over Sin City.
Lori C, a native of Las Vegas and massive UNLV fan, was in the airport on early Sunday morning as thousands of people travel for the Christmas holiday. She got to chatting with those around her and found herself in conversation with a commercial pilot.
He had questions about the Sphere. Lori had answers.
One thing led to another and the pilot told her a really cool fact about her hometown’s newest addition. She said that he said that the Sphere is visible from 300 miles in the air.
Her post initially caught my eye because of how truly insane that sounded. Being able to see a (relatively small) concert venue from the height of 300 Denvers made my head explode.
However, upon doing the math, Lori’s post didn’t make sense.
The Sphere has a crazy reach!
300 miles is more than 1.5 million feet. The maximum height that a commercial airplane is allowed to reach when they fly is 42,000 feet, so that doesn’t make any sense at all.
Even if Lori meant 30 miles, that’s that’s more than 150,000 feet. Still doesn’t make sense.
At this point, I was frustrated by Lori’s misinformation and almost gave up on my search.
And then, in large part because of my esteemed colleague Connor Toole, it hit me. Lori probably meant 300 miles away!
If true, putting that number in perspective is pretty crazy. The Sphere — in Las Vegas — can be seen from places like San Louis Obispo and Santa Barbara in California, Salt Lake City in Utah, and even as far as Flagstaff in Arizona.
Pretty crazy!
I was also able to come across a more accurate number in regard to elevation with help from Popular Mechanics. It is equally as wild.
The Sphere’s exosphere is made up of 1.2 million LED pucks. Each puck is spaced nine inches apart and covers a fully-programmable 580,000-square-foot display.
It is a 512-foot-diameter ball in the middle of the desert.
The International Space Station orbits the earth at 254 miles up. Astronauts who reside in the Space Station can see the Sphere down below whenever they pass over The Silver State.
The Sphere is visible from outer space!