Light pollution prevents 1 in 3 people on from seeing the Milky Way at night

Across the globe, light pollution is making the night sky lighter and the stars harder to see, according to a new study.

In a paper published Friday in Science Advances, researchers reveal that 1 in 3 people worldwide are unable to see the Milky Way when they gaze at the heavens in their hometown. In addition, a whopping 83 percent of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies.

In Singapore – the country with the most light pollution in the world – the skies never go dark, the authors write. Even at 1 a.m. the sky more closely resembles the warm glow of twilight then the inky blackness of a true night.

The situation is almost the same in other countries worldwide including Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Israel and Argentina. In all of these countries, more than half of the population never experiences a truly dark night.

In the U.S. and Europe, 99 percent of people live under light-polluted skies, the scientists report. The Milky Way remains hidden from 80 percent of North Americans and 60 percent of Europeans.

“Humanity has enveloped our planet in a luminous fog that prevents most of the Earth’s population from having the opportunity to observe our galaxy,” wrote the research team led by Fabio Falchi of the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Thiene, Italy.

For this study, the researchers gathered satellite data from NASA’s VIIRS satellite to create a World Atlas of Artificial Sky Luminance. The measurements were taken at 1 a.m. local time across the globe, because that’s when the satellite passed over each site.

The authors say the light situation is almost certainly worse earlier in the evening.

There are some places in the world where people still do live under pristine skies. The scientists found that the populations of Chad, Central African Republic and Madagascar are least affected by light pollution.

They also looked at which areas of the planet are farthest from a good, clear view of the Milky Way. Residents of Egypt who live near Cairo have to travel the most distance to get to a sky dark enough to give them even a possibility of seeing the Milky Way. Runners-up include Belgium, the Netherlands, parts of Germany, northern Italy, and a series of cities in the northeast United States from Boston to Washington.