EDITOR’S NOTE: “Vegas Myths Busted” is released every Monday, with an additional Flashback Friday edition. This installment in our continuing series was originally published on Oct. 30, 2023.
On May 25, 2022, the “Cubby and Christine in the Morning” program on WLTW-FM/New York posed a question to its audience: What is the brightest location on Earth?
The first caller who answered “Las Vegas” was rewarded with four tickets to a Cirque du Soleil performance at the Prudential Center.
But those tickets should have gone to a different winner.
The Actual Brightest Place is … Not the Strip
Identifying the brightest spot on Earth, based on square mile measurements, “hasn’t been conclusively done, but it’s possible,” Jurij Stare, the creator of the lightpollutionmap.info application, informed Casino.org. This tool lets users manipulate images captured at night globally by NOAA and NASA’s SWAMI satellite from 2012 to 2022, revealing luminosity as numerical data.
“To get an accurate answer, you need a GIS analyst to carry out some zonal statistics on the VIIRS datasets,” Stare explained via email. “This would require significant manual work compiling areas and recording data.”
Seeking clarity, we reached out to Fabio Falchi, a researcher at the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Thiene, Italy. We needed help understanding Stare’s technical jargon and hoped he could give us the answers without extra effort on our part.
During a Zoom meeting, Falchi accessed Stare’s web app and highlighted multiple heavily illuminated regions globally showcased in red, indicating the highest nightly luminosity. There were countless identical red clusters, with the Las Vegas Strip being just one among many.
He then zoomed in on a particularly striking red area he had noted just prior to our call: the Chau Thanh district in Vietnam, near Saigon. Comparing the red glow of the Strip with a similarly-sized patch over Chau Thanh revealed an eye-opening contrast.
In fact, Chau Thanh’s overall light output reached 335 nanowatts per square centimeter, compared to the Strip’s 245. That’s a remarkable 37% brighter!
Illuminating the Facts
“Let’s explore what makes this area so luminous,” Falchi remarked while referencing a daytime satellite image of Chau Thanh, which revealed a vast swath of agricultural land.
“This is quite peculiar,” he continued. “I’m unsure why this is happening. Could they be lighting the fields at night?”
Indeed, they do! Tour agencies actually promote nighttime excursions to these illuminated fields. One such agency, Innoviet, describes these fields on its website as “a million stars sparkling on the ground, allowing you to marvel at the scene up close.”
Is it conceivable that the title of brightest location on Earth remained hidden until we nudged Falchi into the discovery on Oct. 20, 2023?
Yes, it’s plausible, but it’s also quite possible that a small yet exceptionally bright part of cities like Hong Kong, Moscow, or Riyadh may hold the title, as some credible online sources often proclaim these cities as the brightest on Earth.
Perhaps you have a year-long project to investigate that wouldn’t lead to a postgraduate degree. However, as mere Vegas myth-busters, we take pleasure in confidently stating …
The brightest spot on Earth, in terms of luminosity per square mile, is definitively not the Las Vegas Strip.
“Is it too late for me to claim those Cirque du Soleil tickets?” Falchi joked.
Understanding the Myth
A photograph taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on November 30, 2010, showcasing the Strip’s vibrant lights, was shared by NASA alongside this declaration: “The Vegas Strip is believed to be the brightest location on Earth due to the concentration of lights illuminating its hotels and casinos.”
Yet, the phrase “believed to be” seemingly went unnoticed. (Interestingly, even NASA was reluctant to delve into this research!)
Numerous websites assert that the Las Vegas Strip is unquestionably the brightest location on Earth. One blog from Westgate Resort even goes as far as declaring the Strip as brighter than the entire city of Hong Kong!
What About the Luxor?
If you’re keen for Las Vegas to claim a “brightest something” title, perhaps “the brightest individual light on Earth visible from space” could suffice.
When launched in 1993, the Luxor light, powered by 39 xenon lamps with 7,000-watt bulbs, emitted 42.3 billion candela. For context, a modern lighthouse emits about 1 million candela. That’s like having 42,000 lighthouses aimed directly skyward.
This statement uses the past tense because the Luxor’s light has been reduced by half since 2008. MGM Resorts implemented this adjustment to conserve energy and expenses, hoping to keep it under wraps.
Except for instances like this where we highlight the light’s reduction to the few who genuinely care about such details, it seemingly worked. Very few people noticed. Even at approximately 21 billion candela, the Luxor’s beam still holds the reputation as the world’s brightest light.
Issue at Hand
Regardless of its status as the brightest light, the Luxor Sky Beam — to dispel two myths simultaneously — has never been seen from space. All satellite images of Las Vegas at nighttime depict the light from the southern segment of the Strip merging into a single luminous haze.
That’s why the Luxor was indistinguishable in the introductory image of this piece.
Stay tuned for a new “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com for earlier debunked Vegas myths. Have a Vegas myth that requires busting? Reach out to [email protected].