Watching the World Go By

About this video

Hop aboard a sixty-second flight through the night sky over Planet Earth.

A time-lapse film created by James Blake, Professor of Physics and Maryland University, by sewing together 600 images taken from the International Space Station.

As our planet rotates look out for the yellow line hovering above the surface of the Earth. The ionosphere is a layer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that contains lots of free electrons. These electrons play an important part in reflecting and delaying radio signals between satellites and receivers down on the ground.

Hat-tip to Dan Coleman's OpenCulture blog for bringing this, and other videos, to our attention. Don't miss the links on the right to other time-lapse films on the site.