Saw this on twitter. Is the whole of Belgium lit up like a Xmas tree or am I mistaken? Link here…https://twitter.com/Sciencenature14/status/1550813096331075585?t=3rk3ZDDYLVNKa2SCYsFBVg&s=19

15 comments

1. I’m no rocket scientist, but this seems fake.

   I dont believe the ISS passes close enough to earth they can make selfies this close

   Edit: also the slope of the earth isnt that big, you need to be further away to see it, so chanses of seeing ground that good are smaller

   Edit 2: [this](https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2009/09/the_international_space_station_seen_from_space_shuttle_discovery/9882818-3-eng-GB/The_International_Space_Station_seen_from_Space_Shuttle_Discovery_pillars.jpg) is a picture from the ISS, look how the slope of the eath is alot flatter (but still a globe 😋).

2. Nice selfie! And to answer your question, no, only our roads and highways are bathing in light.
   We have lots of roads though.

3. It’s true, its been known belgium+netherlands has the biggest light polution. But they decided/improved it years ago by not turning all the lights on on highways. Not sure if that helped

   https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=49.2859&lon=8.3633&layers=B0FFFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFFF

4. We have a high highway density and one of the best lit highways of Europe

5. That’s Flanders, Northern France, Brussels and Walloon Brabant.

   Province of Luxembourg isn’t as bright as this.

6. Belgium is horrid when it comes to light pollution. If you live near a city you need to be lucky to see any stars. Im always amazed when i go to denmark and look at the sky. Its rather sad. But light gives a lot of safety.

7. It is and it’s a pain in the ass for astronomy

8. These pictures are fake. But yes Belgium is considered one of the brightest countries out there.

9. A light every 10 meters on almost every road that’s why

10. Still amazes me how almost everyone thinks this is a real photo

11. As other said horrible light pollution and roads lights but I’d add the fact that Belgium is very densely populated too.

12. Yeah this country is so bad with the lights. I’ve seen a big faren turned on on a public parking at 15u or something like that. Lights go on at 17 in the damn summer at some places

13. Why are densely populated western areas the ones who are suffering most from light pollution?

    Do you really want us to tell you or can you figure it out yourself?

14. The pic is fake but yes, Belgium has absolutely horrible light pollution.

15. While this picture is fake, yes it was a real thing. Astronauts called it “the Belgian Window”.

    Due to the enormous light pollution on our dense freeways (until recently, when we started switching off 50%) and dense town/city networks (thank you lintbebouwing), the Flanders region was one of the brightest hotspot of lights at night on the planet, and the brightest in Europe. It was only rivalled by places like New York, Las Vegas, Taiwan, the Nile Delta, and Tokyo, among others.