What We Gain From Dark Night Skies

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This image of the United States at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by satellite in April and October 2012. NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center)./NASA Earth Observatory hide caption

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NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center)./NASA Earth Observatory

This image of the United States at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by satellite in April and October 2012.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center)./NASA Earth Observatory

For many of us, seeing stars in the night sky is challenging because of light pollution. But there are some communities that are trying to change that.

Today on the show, we visit cultural astronomer Danielle Adams in the world's first international dark sky city. Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein also joins us to explain why access to dark night skies is so important.

Follow Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber on Twitter @ScienceRegina. Reach the show by sending an email to ShortWave@NPR.org.

Today’s episode was edited by Stephanie O’Neill, fact-checked by Katherine Sypher and produced by Katherine Sypher and Rebecca Ramirez — with help from Chloee Weiner. The audio engineer for this episode was Josh Newell. Special thanks to Margaret Cirino.