New Stunning ISS Time-lapse: Earth Illuminated

By Nancy Atkinson - August 9, 2012 at 9:52 PM UTC | Space Exploration

"If you could see the Earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more spendid than the Moon."

-- Galileo Galilei.

400 years ago, Galileo could only imagine what the view of Earth would be like from space. Today, we have people on board the International Space Station who see that view every day. This new beautiful time-lapse shows aurora, lightning, our Milky Way Galaxy, city lights and other sights as seen from orbit.

Below is a great still image from this video, an amazing look through the ISS's Cupola as Earth whizzes by:

Image caption: A view out the Cupola of the ISS. Credit: NASA

For more time-lapse videos and imagery, visit

NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com