Light Pollution Hides Milky Way From North Americans

The glow of light pollution prevents 80 percent of the North Americans from seeing the Milky Way galaxy in the night sky. These are the findings of a new study conducted by a team of researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA researchers have published a new atlas of artificial night sky brightness. According to the atlas, Milky Way is now hidden from one-third of the human population on Earth.

There are still some countries, including Madagascar, Chad and Central African Republic that witness clear skies and a majority of people there still live under the pristine sky conditions. However, 99 percent of the people in countries like the US and the UK now live under light polluted skies.

Singapore is one of the countries with the worst level of light pollution. There, the researchers found that "the entire population lives under skies so bright that the eye cannot fully dark-adapt to night vision." Other such countries include Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

According to researcher Chris Elvidge, the world has lost a part of their view into the cosmos. There are people who still remember the way they used to see the Milky Way in the night sky. However, this night view is disappearing at a fast pace.

Elvidge also worked on the first world atlas of light pollution that was released almost 15 years ago. At that time, the atlas had found that nearly one-fifth of the world's population has lost the ability to see the Milky Way with the naked eye.

However, the new satellite is not comparable to the old one. The new version of the atlas uses data from a new satellite. The research team combines the data from the computer models and observations taken from the ground to come up with how light scatters in the atmosphere.