The Natural Brightness of the Night Sky #SpaceSaturday
If it’s true that there’s a bit of an urban exodus happening in the post-2020 world, then the escaping city-dwellers might get an opportunity to see something they haven’t seen very much of: stars.
Light pollution prevents city folks from seeing the profound majesty of the night sky. If you’ve ever seen the night sky during a new moon from the middle of the ocean, or out in a desert, or up on a mountain, then you have an inkling as to why star worship is one of the oldest forms of human devotion. Recently scientists sought out the darkest places in the world to develop a method to measure the natural brightness of the night sky. Here’s more from Phy.Org:
The night sky is not completely dark; even in the remotest places there is a glow in the sky produced by natural components, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, and by artificial lighting of human origin. Even though the main bright sources such as the Moon, the Milky Way, and the Zodiacal light are easily recognizable, there is a glow which dominates the sky brightness on the darkest nights, produced in the upper layers of the atmosphere, and whose strength depends on a set of complex factors such as the time of year, the geographical location, and the solar cycle.
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