In the film you can see some of the planet’s most impressive
landscapes, including the coast of Namibia, Tunisia and Madagascar, along with
Sicily, China, the Zagros mountains in Iran, Australia’s Gulf of Carpenteria,
and the Great Salt Lake in Utah to name some of the birds-eye views on offer.
The second video is less than three minutes in length, but
shows a full year in the life of our nearest neighbour – the moon. The
time-lapse footage is quite hypnotic, but for me the real impact comes from
comparing the views that both films offer of life in our universe. The stark
contrast between the ever changing, blue, green and red landscape that is our
beautiful planet, with that of the bare pockmarked surface of the moon, is
frighteningly obvious.
As I said about another recent Monday Movie featuring
different footage from the International Space Station:
"... if you think we humans are going to find a better place elsewhere in the universe – you are kidding yourself. This is it. This really is as good as it gets, and the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can focus on protecting the planet, and doing everything possible to ensure it, and we, survive for many future generations."
Touring The Earth From Space
-o0o-
A Year in The Life of The Moon
If you were stuck somewhere far away from the recent lunar
eclipse, here’s some consolation courtesy of NASA. The Scientific Visualization
Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center has put together this two and
a half minute video from over a year’s worth of data recorded by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been
orbiting the moon at 50 kilometers above its surface for over a year.
Related Content:
Touring the Earth from Space (in HD)
The Best of NASA Space Shuttle Videos (1981-2010)
Thanks to Open Culture for
bring this to our attention.
