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1/4 exposure time so 250 ms of light. the light is coming from all the light sources in the universe, plus the moon, plus the sun's rays refracting through the atmosphere which happens even at night.

The natural blue light is coming from the oxygen in the atmosphere but it's so overwhelming in that spot that it turns the light pure white. The red/orangish is coming from particulates and the green/red from aurora. My favorite part I think is the very bottom where you can see the blue light taper off and not overwhelm the camera sensor and you can see the aurora with it. I love this photo so much.

Probably my favorite photo ever now.

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> the light is coming from all the light sources in the universe, plus the moon

And all the others are negligible by many orders of magnitude compared to the moon. So it's really just the moon as far as this photo is concerned (except for the small sliver that's still illuminated by sunlight, including refracted sunlight).

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> the light is coming from all the light sources in the universe, plus the moon

This is true for every photo ever taken

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so the atmosphere acts as giant lamp lit from behind by Moon? never thought of it that way
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> the light is coming from all the light sources in the universe,

That's highly incorrect. I have many lightsources that aren't contributing to any photons in that picture. For example my refrigerator light.

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I turn off my refrigerator light after I close the door by reaching in and pushing the button. Don’t you?
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> Beyond cities in Iberia and along the coast of Africa, most of what we can see would be reflected light from the Moon?

Yes, exactly.

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That's what the caption the article above says
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