IN 1972, NASA astronauts took the now-famous image of Earth called Blue Marble, showing the planet as seen from the window of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

Forty years later, NASA have replicated the feat – except this time the images show the Earth at night-time.

The images, which have already been nicknamed ‘Black Marble’, are a composite of data acquired by an orbiting satellite which used newly-designed equipment to collect the detailed view of the earth at night. The images were taken over a period of months to provide a realistic view of the planet.

The lights that can be seen aren’t just electric: the satellite also picked up the light from wildfires across western Australia, brightly-lit boats along the Nile, and flares from oil rigs drilling in the Middle East.

Here’s how it looks:

(All images: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr)

And here’s a video showing the view of the earth:

(Video: NASA explorer/YouTube)

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