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INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION — Astronauts can learn a lot in space, but it seems there is a lot about Earth to observe out there as well.
Over the course of his six-month Blue Dot mission, european astronaut Alexander Gerst captured 12,500 images of his home planet from his temporary home — the International Space Station.
The images, turned into a 6-minute timelapse, show the auroras, lightning, city lights, Milky Way, cloud formations and sunrises that affect how the planet’s surface appears.
Highlights from the video include the release of satellites at 4:56, a lightning storm at 4:38 and the aurora at 5:28.
Gerst returned home to Earth Nov. 10. During his time on the ISS, he conducted more than 50 experiments and installed the European Space Agency’s furnace that suspends and cools molten metal in midair, according to ESA.
