Weekend Special: When Cities, People and Highways Glow Like Stars

October 14, 2012

Ever wonder what it would look like to fly high above the Earth in the middle of the night? In a video by NASA scientist Justin Wilkinson, it's clear that while we're asleep, our planet is buzzing with city lights and lightning storms.

by Robert Krulwich

October 14, 2012 8:31 AM

In this video, we are flying over the Earth, looking down and seeing what astronauts see when it's nighttime, when lightning storms flash like June bugs, when cities look like galaxies, when you can see where people are. It's quietly astonishing.

This montage of space footage was assembled and narrated by NASA scientist Justin Wilkinson. There's another one, which takes us around the Earth in daytime.

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