Lights Drown Out Milky Way For A Third Of People

More than a third of the world's population can no longer see the Milky Way because of skies polluted by artificial light, scientists claim.

A new global atlas of light pollution shows that across many regions of the world the Milky Way galaxy is hidden behind a blanket of luminous fog.

Singapore is the most light-polluted country, with the entire population losing out on seeing the true night sky. Kuwait and Qatar are close runners-up.

In the US, around 80% of the population is affected by light pollution, and in Europe, it's an estimated 60%.

Countries whose populations are exposed to the least light pollution are Chad, Central African Republic and Madagascar.

In western Europe, only small areas of night sky remained untarnished by light, chiefly in Scotland, Sweden and Norway.

The team of US and Italian scientists used high-resolution satellite images and sky brightness measurements to produce the atlas, published in the journal Science Advances.

Lead author Dr Fabio Falchi, from the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy, said: "I hope that this atlas will finally open the eyes of people to light pollution."

Dr Chris Elvidge, from the National Centres for Environmental Information in Boulder, Colorado, US, said: "We've got whole generations of people in the United States who have never seen the Milky Way.

"It's a big part of our connection to the cosmos - and it's been lost."