Black Marble- Earth at Night

This image nicknamed Black Marble, is what the Earth looks like at night.  You can you find your favorite country or city.

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, is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures remade in 2016 from data taken by the orbiting Suomi NPP satellite.

Image Credit: NASA, Suomi NPP VIIRS; Data: Miguel Román (NASA GSFC); Processing: Joshua Stevens

source APOD