Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day ^ | 2004 August 22 | C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

[ckilmer]

Earth at Night Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive Explanation: This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites.

[FreeAtlanta]

I always love these night composites. Notice the island of South Korea?

[RonHolzwarth]

I'd like to point out something I think is rather interesting:

In antiquity, based upon observation, it was believed that the moon was simply GONE when it was not full.

Today it is rather obvious that there is something there, the darkened portion of the moon shows as a faint reddish object.

That is because we are lighting it up, with artificial light!

[Kirkwood]

Download the big version. Fascinating.

[demlosers]

Can you find your favorite country or city?

Yeah, North Korea no lights. LoL...

[steplock]

Someone had a GLOBE version of this. I had a low-res copy but I never saved a hi-res of the globe and now I can;t find it anywhere!

Does someone know where I could find it?

[L`enn]

Now we know where Africa got the name of the "Dark Continent"

[Steely eyed killer of the deep]

It's comforting to know that a submarine launched Tomahawk missile can reach out and touch three-quarters of the world's population.

[gcruse]

Africa remains the Dark Continent

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I see I left the porch light on again.