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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Robin McKie

SHOCKING: Stars could be invisible within 20 years as light pollution brightens night skies | Mind Blowing Facts

The Milky Way
The Milky Way photographed over the Philippines. It may soon be lost to view. Photograph: Gilbert Rondilla Photography/Getty Images

The Herefordshire hills basked in brilliant sunshine last weekend. Summer had arrived and the skies were cloudless, conditions that would once have heralded succeeding nights of coal-dark heavens sprinkled with brilliant stars, meteorites and planets.

It was not to be. The night sky was not so much black as dark grey with only a handful of stars glimmering against this backdrop. The Milky Way – which would once have glittered across the heavens – was absent. Summer’s advent had again revealed a curse of modern times: light pollution.

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