Breathtaking: Alexander Gerst’s Earth timelapses

[demmiblue]

Watch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12 500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station this Ultra High Definition video shows the best our beautiful planet has to offer.

Marvel at the auroras, sunrises, clouds, stars, oceans, the Milky Way, the International Space Station, lightning, cities at night, spacecraft and the thin band of atmosphere that protects us from space.

Often while conducting scientific experiments or docking spacecraft Alexander would set cameras to automatically take pictures at regular intervals. Combining these images gives the timelapse effect seen in this video.

For better effect, view it on YouTube (click the YouTube icon on the video). Spectacular!

[ffr]

1. Ho-hum. Seen it.

So what, it's Earth, the planet that we live on. The only planet we know of in our solar system that harbors life. Okay, also in the know universe too, which is so vast, we as a species will probably never be able to venture far enough away from our home planet to find any other habitable environment. Yes, there's significance I guess when you start to ponder the difficulties of how not to die without everything that mother Earth is providing for us for free and that we had nothing to do with to get to where we are. I guess too, it is kind of an Eden, a paradise in the expanse on space. An oasis where the conditions are so perfect that the sum of everything about Earth makes it really a miracle for it to be the one place where we could live; where all species thrive in equilibrium with their surroundings. And if we were from another world, we'd probably kill ourselves trying to get here, to where everything is already provided for by this wonderful blue marble. Surely, knowing how we'd die almost instantly anywhere else in the known universe would make us realize how important it is to recognize some basic facts about this blue jewel. And surely, our first priority would be the preservation of the current environment for our own sake. SURELY, RIGHT?!

I marvel.

[RoccoR5955]

2. Simply awesome! n/t