"The heat bloom that your satellite detected makes more sense now," said the engineer.

The entire American early-warning system will go mad when their satellites detect a surface nuclear explosion.

Instead, he said, the satellite was detecting ultraviolet radiation from two stars close to the site of the explosion.

Our satellites have detected transport planes moving on the tarmac.

Other environmental satellites can detect changes in the Earth's vegetation, sea state, ocean color, and ice fields.

The satellite has already detected more than 100 other flares of somewhat lesser force.

The satellite detected the attack and beeped alarms to its masters.

From 1975 to 1992, the satellites detected 136 explosions high in the atmosphere, an average of eight a year.

This reassured scientists that what the satellite had detected was real and not the result of some instrument error.

Now, a satellite looking at the top of the water can detect the topography of the ocean floor.