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APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

The featured image shows what the Earth looks like at night in 2016 by featuring human-made lights. The image is a composite created from images and data taken by the Suomi NPP satellite. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Earth at Night

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 featured image , nicknamed Black Marble , is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures re made in 2016 from data taken by the orbiting Suomi NPP satellite .

Date February 13, 2022
Credit Image Credit: NASA , Suomi NPP VIIRS ; Data: Miguel Román ( NASA GSFC ); Processing: Joshua Stevens
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.