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Antarctica at night. Satellite image of the Earth at night, set against a background of stars, centred on the Antarctic. The South Pole is at centre. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population. Apart from a few research stations, Antarctica is uninhabited. Surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it is thousands of kilometres from the nearest population centres of the Southern Hemisphere. The inhabited land seen here includes: the southern tip of Africa (lower right), the southern parts of South America (upper right), New Zealand (centre left) and the southern parts of Australia (lower left). Image data obtained in 2001 by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/NASA/NOAA)