Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 March 5
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

Where People Live on Planet Earth
Credit: NRCS, USDA

Explanation: Where do people live on Planet Earth? Although people inhabit every continent, the highest population densities occur in Asia. Sparsely inhabited regions occur on virtually every continent, however, including the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Great White North of North America, the outback of Australia, the Amazon of South America, and the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. The above color-coded map was produced from populations estimates made for 1994, when the world population was about 5.5 billion. Current estimates place the world population at about 6.3 billion.

Tomorrow's picture: Open Space


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& NASA SEU Edu. Forum
& Michigan Tech. U.