Science educator James Drake has created a one-minute timelapse video of the ISS circling the globe, which provides a fascinating look at Earth from above.

What does Earth look like from the International Space Station? Science educator James Drake has created a one-minute timelapse video of the ISS circling the globe, which provides a fascinating look at Earth from above.

According to UniverseToday.com, Drake created the video by combining 600 photos that are available via the Johnson Space Center's Gateway to Astronomy Photograph of Earth, an online repository of photographs taken by astronauts.

The images are taken from the front of the ISS as it orbits the planet at night. The video starts over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.

"Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico, Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon," Drake said in his video description. "Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy."

Drake said he used Virtualdub to create the final movie. He has more images of the universe on his blog, Infinity Imagined.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to hand over the reins on the management of U.S. science research on ISS. The space agency selected CASIS for those duties in July and said that it will pay the non-profit group up to $15 million a year to handle science affairs on the American parts of the ISS.

That came several weeks after an unidentified failure caused the carrying three tons of supplies to the space station, though the six astronauts aboard the ISS were in no immediate danger.

NASA last week, meanwhile, revealed that its Kepler mission had , or a "Tatooine"-like planet that orbits two stars.