This has always been a cool image, thanks for uploading =).

Notice the difference between North and South Korea.

I now see why Americans don't get much sleep . . .

Really one of the great wallpapers! You can get lost...

i see Caedes removed the comment i was responding to so i will change this response to a general "thanx for the comments"

I have to say, I think this is one of the coolest backgrounds on this site! It just boggles my mind that that is really real!

this was taken by NASA?

It was taken by a satelite that is controlled by NASA . . . actually it is several pictures put together (obviously it wouldn't be dark everywhere in the world at once)

makes you wondr what canadians are up to at night... Do they really sleep ;?
or do they just have really high lightbills?
then again, half of the world's countries are "under lit"

but a very cool pic regardless

Canadians.... what are you talking about... you can practically see the US-Canadian border... The Canadians have all their lights off...

I wonder how many lights need to be on in the same place to be able to see it from space?

earth at night from space
cold ,scilent and sexy
but full of surprises

speechless

I have that poster in my room.

I've been looking for this as a background for quite some time. Thanks!

It's a great image but could you gat it in 800x600 thanx

great image. Seeing everything at once is spectacular

What is really awesome about this is. If your a Geography Buff like me, and can tell where the bigger cities are on the map without an actual (MAP) you would know that, the in the USA part of the photo. The biggest lights as in the thickest are the bigger cities in the USA. Like NewYork, is well lighted in this pic. Another is along the coastlines of Florida. The bigger the light-orb or whatever, the bigger the city. Its really cool. I located, Minneapolis/St. Pual MN, Kansas City, St. Luis, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Sanfransisco, Las Vegas, Las Angeles, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and a few others on it. Its a very cool image Ivan.

Great Pictures

Awesome! I think I'm that little light about 2 inches from the middle.

Why do i still feel so lonely at times ?

It looks cool

Is it a real picture of the Earth?

That's the F * * King Dogsbollocks..!

errrm yeah, i came and i saw, must comment on this as probably one of the best earth images around. it seems so obvoius to me now... thinking about it, earth could be imagined as a light bulb, because the concept of light and electricity is what most of our useful modern technology is based on, the earth looks like a bigger "space sized" version of its greatest invention. does this dis-courage the aliens/ufo's from visiting us??? or are those strange lights in the sky at night space moths!!!!!!!!!!!! agggrahhhhh if anyone has the answers let me know, sorry about going off on a tangent. i'll shut up now. simonjones597@hotmail.com

cool cool cool

This image is facinating!

Wonderful, it shows just few differences with a (drawn wit pencil) map, were the opposites rich-poor are in.
This is really cool!

It's too cold in Canada for lights. Does that picture say,here we are, in alien speak?

I doubt you could look out of your window in a space shuttle and see it that well. They probably had highly sensetive lenses for the shoot.

Not to mention, they might not have been consistent with their swivel around the earth. This may be the reason that there is a fading spectrum towards western USA from eastern. I know we dont have many cities over there, but the transition seems almost unrealistic.

Look at the UK. Poor old scotland has no light bulbs

I don't think they have no lightbulbs. They are probably normal people who are actually SLEEPING at night. This is very cool. Keep em coming.

You've got to make it smaller. Try 1027x768, pleeeze!

freakin' awesome!

how come it's night everywhere though. That's the thing that's a tad bit confusing.

I explained that in my third post.

Are you ever going to make it smaller so that us people with normal sized screens can use it? That is why you posted the background isn't it? Sorry, I just want it on my computer really bad!

First of all, I posted this before the images were automatically offered in multiple sizes, so I have no control over the sizes offered. Secondly, you can set it as you desktop reguardless of what size it is. It will automatically be resized to fit your screen. Simply right click on the image and then select "Set as Background."

Very lovely

I've seen that on a poster before, I always liked it for some odd reason..

one word --> SICK! ! !

splendid!

wow I'm so impressed...this is so cool! I have a BIG mouth and even I'm speechless.

i'm gonna be printing it for a poster in my room!Looks great!

absolutely stunning

This is cool, remember the blackout in New York? This would have been strange if taken then.....

Very Cool

In Australia, you can see where the major cities are by the concentration of light and then the radiation out, like a spider web. Very cool. I have also always loved this picture.

pretty cool, but its never night everywere at once. Sorry to spoil the picture. It still looks good. I think I can see my house from here...

I can say the same what said "Iambert1".Including the sentence with house tooooooo!

WHAT A VIEW,HOPE I GET A VIEW LIKE THAT FOR REAL.

I like how u can see how pathetic north korea is you see south korea and it is filled with lights and look north and the lights just dissapear

It's Very cool
unfortunatley i had to get
it on a different site to have as my backround
because that is too big :-(
But into my favs and a 10 caus its great

Agree with everyone above me. Looks awsome. I would one day like to see this from its orginal view in space.

Impressive and awesome. This is so cool. I have heard about this image for a long time but never saw it until now. Thanks for posting it! In my fav's.

Hey, Ivan I read your post about selecting the "Set as desktop", I have a smaller screen and there is much of the photo that does not show up, even after selecting "Set as Desktop". Any chance you could post this in a smaller format? If not, it still looks cool.

I really love this photo-I just saw it now, too, and it is now my background and in my favorites :)

Cheers for this one...it is one of the alltime classic wallpapers....
woz the guy who said it was the ******g dogs******** saying that as a compliment?
just wondering....
ps. i am in scotland and no....we don't have any lightbulbs..*ahem*
cheers again for the great image
CHEERS!

Beautiful
I love how you can see the lights along the Nile in Egypt :)

Belgium is the most lighted country on earth. Try to find it :p

One word
Awesome!!

I love this! Has been my wallpaper for a month.

This was obviously before the hurricanes knocked out the power in Florida. Awesome image. Finally my tax dollars were spent on something worthwhile.

Do you think if NASA took several pictures of Earth during a solar eclipse a big shadow would appear? If yeh that would be cool to see!

I run a NASA Educator Resource Center in Utah. NASA has produced a poster of this that U.S. school teachers can get for free by contacting their state's NASA Educator Resource Center. Also, the poster is available online as a pdf file here.

This is very cool. I can imagine the people who saw this first... that's gotta be the coolest feeling

thats bloody amazing

i agree with yield_two_cookies.. that is bloody amazing! well done!!!

haha look at a Hawaii....they're really partying it up...there's not one dark spot on there!!

I've always loved this photo. Thanks posting it, and at a size I can actually use. I've always come across it on the net at like 800 pixels wide.

Can truly get lost in it.

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks alot! I used to have a poster of this in my dorm room lol =)

This is an awsome Pic, if I do say so myself, Has anyone noticed the fact that Japan is basically one giant lightbulb, on this pic... ok Thanx for the upload.
~Xetxuna

Some neat geography stuff. I like how the Nile River and Delta are completely lit up, for example, and places that are empty desert and arctic wasteland are black void.

beautiful..but I need a smaller size..thanks

It's an amazing picture. It's a shame we can't go back to 1906 and take the same picture to compare.

I had that same thought about going back and taking a picture at an early time to see the developmental changes. And to the comment about the US west being less lit than the east...I think that's for real, their cities back east just run smack into each other, I never know if I'm in the same town I started in or not when I'm visiting and driving around. Sometimes I can't even tell you if I'm in the same state!

simply amazing, thanks for sharing!

Absolutely amazing, Browsing the site looking for a new background, now I've found this I can stop looking! Favourited and added to my Desktop.

Man, I love this!! I also thought something that was interesting is the fact that most of the population is in the northern hemisphere. Very little lights in the southern hemisphere.

What an amazing image they caught.
Just goes to show how much light pollution we give off =o