The image has accumulated more than one million likes and thousands of comments.
American space agency NASA recently shared a stunning old picture of Earth at night, providing a clear view of the patterns of human settlements across our planet.
Satellite images of Earth at night - often referred to as "night lights" - have been a source of curiosity for the public and a tool for fundamental research for nearly 25 years. They have provided a broad, beautiful picture, showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness.
Now, taking to Instagram, NASA shared a 2016 picture of our planet's night lights. It shows the outline of Earth glowing in light blue. It also shows the city lights of Europe and northern Africa shining bright.
Take a look below:
"The image shows Earth's night lights as observed in 2016; it is drawn from a compositing technique that selected the best cloud-free nights in each month over each land mass in 2016. (Note that clouds and sunlight are added for aesthetic effect.)" the American space agency wrote in the caption of the post.
Further quoting former NASA scientist, Miguel Roman, the space agency added, "Using this data, we can monitor short-term changes caused by disturbances in power delivery, such as conflict, storms, earthquakes, and brownouts."
Also Read | This Rare Asteroid May Make Everyone A Billionaire On This Earth
"We can monitor cyclical changes driven by reoccurring human activities such as holiday lighting and seasonal migrations. We can also monitor gradual changes driven by urbanization, out-migration, economic changes, and electrification. The fact that we can track all these different aspects at the heart of what defines a city is simply mind-boggling," Mr Roman said.
NASA shared the image just a day ago; since then, it has accumulated more than one million likes and thousands of comments. "Our beautiful earth," wrote one user. "Wow wonderful earth," said another.