The majestic Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts orbiting above
‘Even if you’re a tough person you can’t avoid becoming a child again…’
In this video composed of time-lapse imagery recorded from the International Space Station, four veteran astronauts – Helen Sharman, Michael Barratt, Jean-François Clervoy and Daniel Tani – describe the singular, life-changing experience of looking down at Earth. In providing context for these images of our planet (the station orbits Earth every 92 minutes, for instance) and trying to find words for the profound sense of wonder that has come to be known as ‘the overview effect’, the astronauts strive valiantly to share their rarified perspective, giving us just a glimmer of an experience that many people think is just around the corner for a much greater number of us.
Producer and Editor: Ed Prosser
Website: The Royal Institution
videoCosmology
Are observers fundamental to physics, or simply byproducts of it?
10 minutes
videoAstronomy
Visualisations explore what the deep future holds for our night sky
6 minutes
videoAstronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
videoPhysics
To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective
5 minutes
videoSpace exploration
The rarely told story of the fruit flies, primates and canines that preceded us in space
12 minutes
videoPhysics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
videoPhysics
What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search
7 minutes
videoPhysics
Imagining spacetime as a visible grid is an extraordinary journey into the unseen
12 minutes
videoPhysics
The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole
4 minutes