Here’s a composite photo of the Earth at night, published by NASA:
The brightest lights correlate with the densest populations. No political boundary lines are visible, of course.
I once had a framed poster of this sort of image in my office. One of my co-workers asked: “Did they take that amazing photo in one shot? “No,” I explained. “The earth is round, so only one side could be taken at once (at most) and only half of the earth is dark at the same time.
For higher resolution versions of this photo, visit the NASA site.
There are hundreds of other terrific satellite photos to view at the NASA site, including this false color composite of the Island of Hawaii, (explained here).
The NASA site includes many shots of many other places on Earth. Lots of geography through photography, as well as evidence of human impact on this small planet. It’s well worth a long visit. Here’s the home page for NASA’s Visible Earth collection.
