Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha” around 14 September 2021. The camera was setup to take pictures at intervals of two a second, and the pictures are then edited into this video that plays at 25 pictures a second. The video is around 12 times faster than real speed.

Thomas shared this video on social media with the caption:

“Stars or cities? Sometimes when the Station flies in the shadow of Earth the city lights and stars are the only beacons. At first glance it is not always obvious where Earth ends and the night sky starts!”

Over 200 experiments were conducted during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

Updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.