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The Stars Are Disappearing: The Effects of Light Pollution

  • Tristan Senoaji
  • Jul 16
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jul 18

If you live in Jakarta, have you ever wondered why you can’t see any stars at night from your window? My whole life I’ve barely seen any. Observing a glimpse of our endless universe in space is a privilege not everyone has.  Stars are everywhere in our space, though millions of light-years away, but we can only see them in certain places at certain times. What’s different between these areas?


For hundreds of years, people have looked up at the stars with wonder and fascination. Nonetheless, modern living has resulted in an unforeseen effect: light pollution. With the rise of urban development and artificial lighting, the natural darkness of the night sky is disappearing, resulting in greater difficulty in observing the stars. Light pollution not only hinders our ability to see the cosmos, but it also impacts wildlife, human well-being, and scientific study (Gallaway, 2010). 


Light pollution is the overabundance or improper direction of artificial lighting that illuminates the night sky. Typical sources include streetlights, lit signs, massive LED billboards, and home lighting. This leads to "skyglow," which is a scattered, surrounding light that obscures stars and other astronomical elements. The countless light particles emitted by urban areas would scatter everywhere, brightening the dark sky, making the stars which can only be seen in near-perfect darkness, almost impossible to discern. That’s exactly the reason rural areas, not concentrated with lighted objects, are where the stars can be seen the clearest.


In city environments, this indicates that only a handful of stars can be seen, as opposed to thousands in countryside areas with minimal light pollution (Falchi et al., 2016). As this brightness expands, our opportunity to enjoy the natural night sky is diminishing quickly. 

This picture is a Stellarium simulation of the sky above Dark Sky Discovery Site (Brown, 2022)
This picture is a Stellarium simulation of the sky above Dark Sky Discovery Site (Brown, 2022)

This phenomenon particularly affects astronomers. Observatories situated close to urban areas frequently find it challenging to obtain clear space images, resulting in diminished quality of astronomical data and scientific findings. Amateur astronomers, teachers, and learners also miss the chance to connect significantly with our expansive universe (International Dark-Sky Association [IDA], 2023).


The effects of light pollution extend beyond humans. Stars aren’t just a pretty picture on our sky, numerous animals rely on natural light cycles for their day-to-day activities. For example, sea turtle hatchlings navigate toward the ocean using moonlight, but artificial lights from structures can mislead them and cause death. Migratory birds that depend on starlight for orientation frequently crash into bright structures and towers, leading to significant mortality rates (Longcore & Rich, 2004). 


Thankfully, light pollution is one of the most reversible forms of environmental damage. Solutions are quite simple such as using shielded lighting that points downward to limit the “skyglow,” switching to lower-intensity bulbs to reduce the light particles in the environment, and creating designated dark-sky preserves separated far from any light sources to keep the stars in the Earth’s view. And it seems it’s one of the top priority pollution problems currently as several countries have begun to reverse their light pollution damage. In the US, more than 19 states have started enforcing laws often known as “dark skies” legislation to reduce the glare or excessive light output at night through regulating outdoor lights to be lower than 1800 lumens in brightness, encouraging shielding lighting for higher intensity bulbs, and prioritizing minimum light pollution and maximum energy conservation (Schultz, 2022).


REFERENCES:

Falchi, F., Cinzano, P., Duriscoe, D., Kyba, C. C., Elvidge, C. D., Baugh, K., ... & Furgoni, R. (2016). The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness. Science Advances, 2(6), e1600377. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600377

Gallaway, T. (2010). On light pollution, passive pleasures, and the instrumental value of beauty. Journal of Economic Issues, 44(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.2753/JEI0021-3624440104

International Dark-Sky Association. (2023). Light pollution. https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/

Longcore, T., & Rich, C. (2004). Ecological light pollution. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2(4), 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0191:ELP]2.0.CO;2




 
 
 

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