The city looks fairly similar to a ginormous ball of light

Jan 28, 2013 19:31 GMT  ·  By

Astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield, who now finds himself aboard the International Space Station, has recently taken a picture of night-time Las Vegas as seen from high up in our planet's orbit. 

Luckily for us, he considered it worthwhile to  tweet this picture. Just scroll down to have a look at it, but first better make sure you're ready to be mesmerized.     

Now, Las Vegas might be a big city, what with its dozens of streets and buildings, but the fact of the matter is that, when observed from aboard the International Space Station, it looks fairly similar to a gigantic ball of light.

In fact, some very imaginative individuals who've had the change to study astronaut Chris Hadfield's orbit view of Las Vegas insist that, from space, this urban area could easily be mistaken for a portal to another world.   

Chris Hadfield snapped this gorgeous portrait of Las Vegas from an altitude of about 250 miles (about 400 kilometers). Most people would've gotten sick staring backing at Earth from this high up in orbit, but the astronaut quite enjoyed the experience.       Then again, he and the other daredevils living aboard the International Space Station go through extensive training before being launched into orbit, so those of us with a fear of heights have nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Here's Las Vegas late at night. Even my NightPod camera found the lights too bright,” reads the message accompanying this picture on Twitter.