Ever need proof about how we've changed the Earth? Check out what it looks like at night.
If you're ever in doubt that humanity is really, really powerful, you just have to look at the Earth at night.
All images from NASA Earth Observatory. Images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS. Data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Thanks to orbiting NASA satellites, we can see just how much of the Earth we've lit up.
These aren't single images, however. They're each stitched together from thousands of observations. Every couple of years, NASA is able to pull enough together to publicly update the night map.
On April 13, 2017, NASA released their newest set of night maps.
Updated computer programs have made the images clearer than ever. NASA's software is now able to detect things like moonlight and auroras and filter them out of the composites.
Check out that big divide right through the United States.
The United States is the third most heavily populated nation on Earth, but you can clearly see how the West is still dominated by wild, open space.
Night maps are also just dang beautiful. I mean — wow, India.
The nation's become a glowing, beating heart jutting out right in the middle of the ocean. It'll get even brighter as more of its residents get access to electricity.
From above, it's easy to understand how much geography matters. Look at Egypt.
The Nile has been the lifeblood of the region for pretty much all of history, and even today, lights stay tightly wound around that mighty river.
The glow of New York has sprawled out, expanded, and merged with Philly and Boston.
It's almost blinding!
When you zoom out though, you can see there's still plenty of darkness out there.
The oceans make up a huge, dark, swath of the Earth, but you can also clearly see how deserts, jungle, and tundra still keep us at bay.
But the absolute greatest images released this year have to be those of the "Black Marble."
These composite images were stitched together to show a full hemisphere of the Earth. The clouds and breaking sun are a bit of visual flair by the artist.
You can't deny they add something ethereal to the whole thing.
If things go right, we could be able to see a lot more of these images in the near future.
Perhaps every month or maybe even every day. A team of researchers led by Earth scientist Miguel Román of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are planning to overhaul the whole system.
Since 2011, Román and his team have been developing new software that could make daily high-definition images available to the scientific community and public.
What's even cooler is these images are useful. For example, they could pinpoint who might need help after a natural disaster.
Imagine FEMA being able to monitor blackouts after a hurricane or earthquake. We could better monitor migrations or deliver aid to people who need it. In fact, a team at the United Nations has already used similar night-light data to monitor the war in Syria.
This technology could help us take better care of the people living on Earth all while appreciating the beauty of this planet we call home too.
In the end, we're still just lights in the dark. So let's take care of each other while we're here.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.