# New NASA night view of US - what are those things?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 7, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348 "2012-12-07T21:02:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/62 "2012-12-12T01:41:54Z")

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> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I’m always intrigued to look at these images and note whcih cities aren’t as bigm, or are the shape, as I expect. You’d never guess from this that Los Angeles is the second biggest metropolitan area in America, would you? It looks smaller than Chicago, though we know it is not. But that’s because it’s hemmed in by mountains and desert, I suppose, while Chicago is spread out. Miami looks really compressed.

To be fair, Miami is really compressed. The population in the three counties that make up the South Florida metro area is all crammed into a strip of coastline about 15 miles wide at its widest point. There are a number of national wildlife conservation areas immediately west that prevent any further growth in that direction.

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/63 "2012-12-12T10:36:58Z")

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> [@CC](#):
>
> re: flying over the country:  
> Many years ago I had a young man in my 7th grade science class. Whatever we were discussing prompted me to pull down the map of the U.S. The conversation focused on flying over Nebraska, as I remember, and as we were all looking at it, Noel asked, “When you’re in an airplane, can you see the letters?”

Perhaps he knows my second cousin, who thinks Alaska and Hawaii are right off the coast of California. After all, that’s where they were on the map in school.

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