What it Looks Like to Leave Earth: Timelapse Photography

Many space and photography enthusiasts have taken images from the International Space Station files to create some rather stunning timelapse videos of earth and space. But the video we see below, created with images from the Messenger spacecraft, gives viewers a unique view of planet earth. As Messenger left the atmosphere on its way to Mercury, its Dual Imaging system captured hundreds of photos of earth, many of which we see in this sequence:

On its journey to space, Messenger started snapping images of earth as it traveled spaceward over South America at 40,761 miles above our planet. Messenger continued to photograph earth for the next 24 hours, an entire rotation of earth, as the spacecraft traveled distances exceeding 270,000 miles from earth.

Earth from approximately 40,000 miles from earth.

Earth from approximately 45,000 miles from earth.

The timelapse used a total of 358 still images, all taken with the Messenger’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (Via Petapixel), or known as MDIS. After sequencing the image files together, we were left with a moving, bird’s eye view of earth’s rotation.

Like This Article?

Don't Miss The Next One!

Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current: