Space Station Reaches Warp Speed?

By Nancy Atkinson - October 16, 2012 03:46 PM UTC | Space Exploration

The International Space Station appears to go to warp speed --

a la

Star Trek, Star Wars and almost every other space flick -- in this new video created by

Christoph Malin

, who "stacked" image sequences that the ISS crew at International Space Station have been taking lately. These are the images that have been used to

create the great timelapse videos,

that provide a sense of what it is like to fly over the Earth on the space station. But this one is different, and as Malin says, "Stacks make interesting patterns visible, for example lightning corridors within clouds. One can also sometimes recognize satellite tracks and meteors - patterns that are not amongst the main star trails."

Also visible is the Moon disappearing into the atmosphere and views from the ISS Cupola -- gorgeous!

The ISS "Stacks" from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

Via the

Bad Astronomer

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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