December 6th is the moment of global darkness for the largest percentage of Earth’s human population. It was at 19:56 UTC on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. For just a moment on December 6, nearly 9 in 10 people worldwide simultaneously experienced nighttime. The reason why so many people will be in darkness is that the world’s most populated areas will be on the night side of Earth at that moment. That includes nearly all of Asia, which is home to about 60% of all humans.
While it’s nighttime for most people on December 6, there is also a case to be made for both December 21 and December 27 as alternative moments of maximum darkness. If the angle is less than 18 degrees, it’s twilight. That’s the time in the morning and in the evening when indirect sunlight brightens the sky to some degree.
Another instant of peak darkness takes into account all twilight phases, including nautical and civil twilight. During those two phases, the sky is noticeably brighter. However, there’s still no direct sunlight. This is a looser definition of darkness - and it turns out that it is 21:44 UTC on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, as the moment when most of us are not in the daytime. And that puts 88.145 of the world's population in darkness.
The curtain of night engulfs the world in this grunge image. Where we see things in images that aren't actually there, the phenomenon is called Pareidolia. For example clouds that look like sheep, the famous man in the moon, and ice worms on Mars.
