From Space Station Persian Gulf at Night, NASA Card

City lights and shipping traffic mark one of the world’s major economic crossroads. The Persian Gulf forms the centre of this photograph taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS). The nighttime lights mark the larger cities and highways of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The brightest lights are concentrated along the southern and western coastlines, where the major cities of Kuwait City, Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai stand out. Several smaller port cities line the northern coast at the foot of the Zagros Mountains. The lights speckled across the dark waters of the Gulf indicate ships passing through one of the world’s major trade routes. The narrowest section is the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The Strait varies in width between 39 and 96 kilometres (21 to 90 nautical miles) and represents an important chokepoint in the global trade network that funnels millions of barrels of crude oil and petroleum products per day through the region. Image of the Day for January 24, 2021 Instrument: ISS — Digital Camera Appears in these Collections: Astronaut Photography Earth at Night NASA https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147825/bustling-persian-gulf-at-night