City lights hide ninety-nine percent of the stars
Modern light pollution has turned the ancient human experience of seeing the Milky Way into a luxury commodity found only in the world's most remote corners.
The orange glow hanging over modern cities isn't just a haze; it is a physical barrier of scattered photons that drowns out all but the brightest celestial objects. In a typical metropolitan area, the sky is 1,000 times brighter than a pristine natural environment, effectively deleting the 100 billion stars of the Milky Way from our view. This phenomenon has birthed a new industry of astrotourism, where travelers seek out certified dark-sky sites to witness a magnitude of stars invisible to 99 percent of the urban population.
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