A single exposure is a lie. Earth's night side emits genuine light, yet its radiance sits so far below the sunlit disk that a camera asked to record both must betray one. Expose for noon, and cities vanish. Expose for streets, and daylight burns into a featureless field. Physics, not deception, sets the trap.The mismatch is not cosmetic. It is a dynamic-range problem: sensor wells have finite full...More