The Earth's Disappearing Night

by Andy Wagner (Former Member)

Darkness never falls on over a quarter of the world's population. Over two-thirds of Americans and half of all Europeans can no longer see the Milky Way, according to the first comprehensive map of light pollution. If light pollution continues to grow, Astronomer's observatories may soon be in the light plunging astronomers into the dark.

Over past years as light pollution has continued to grow with have grown used to fewer and fewer stars shining in the sky. "More than 99 per cent of the US and European Union population, and about two-thirds of the world population, live in areas where the night sky is above the threshold considered polluted," reports Pierantonio Cinzano of the University of Padua, Italy in The first world atlas of the artificial night sky brightness. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Eighty per cent of the US population have no real night which is defined as darker than twilight in the middle of the ocean.

The new atlas has been created from satellite measurements of low-level visible and infrared light emanating from the top of the Earth's atmosphere. The researchers were able to exclude transient light sources by omitting light that was not issued for at least three consecutive nights.

There is only one city, with more than two hundred and fifty thousand citizens, from which you can see the Milky Way on a clear night, Venice, Italy. This is due mainly to the low intensity of the cities lighting which is kept low to preserves its romance.

Submitted Spring 2002

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Archived Articles

Mushrooms in My Yard Last Autumn - April 27, 2002
The Earth's Disappearing Night - Spring 2002
The Comet Ikeya-Zhang - Spring 2002

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