Around the world in 60 seconds: Incredible time-lapse video from the International Space Station



Science teacher created video using 600 free pictures

Over a million pictures of space stored on website



It took Phileas Fogg 80 days to circumnavigate the world but, thanks to the wonders of technology, it is now possible to do it in just a minute.



This whirlwind video tour of the planet is a compilation of time-lapse images shot from the International Space Station (ISS).



James Drake spliced together the images from the ISS, which travels at about 220 miles above the surface, to create the one-minute footage which he posted online - and it has become an internet sensation.

Science teacher Mr Drake used some 600 free-to-access images on the website The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, and knitted them together so everyone can enjoy the amazing view of North and South America.

Scroll down to see the amazing video

The Earth is shown at night - and the yellow flashes here show the ionosphere - a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere

The science teacher, James Drake, stitched together over 600 images to create the amazing video

The film, which was uploaded on September 15 and has attracted almost 50,000 hits on YouTube, starts over the Pacific Ocean and then moves over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.



Some cities and landmarks can be spied, and they include, in chronological order, Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, various large conurbations in Texas, New Mexico, Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula.

Further around lightning can be seen in the Pacific Ocean, before other countries included in the video are Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon.



The sun is shown rising in the incredible pictures taken from the ISS, which takes 91 minutes to orbit the Earth

Some 600 images were used to make the one-minute video

In addition, the Earth's ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy can be made out in the fascinating footage.

T he Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, where Mr Drake downloaded the pictures from, has been storing over a million images from space, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s.

The website's blurb reads: 'Our database tracks the locations, supporting data, and digital images for these photographs.



'We process images coming down from the International Space Station on a daily basis and add them to the 1,118,120 views of the Earth already made accessible on our website. '

The ISS has been manned for almost 11 years, and images of the Earth are regularly beamed back by their astronauts

The ISS is currently on Expedition 29, and the astronauts will be on the space station until mid-November, when they will be replaced by another crew

ISS IN NUMBERS

1.5bn: The number of statute miles the ISS managed in a decade (November 2, 2010) 57,361: Orbits around the Earth managed in the same time period 136: Number of launches to the ISS - up to September 2011 - since the launch of the first module, Zarya on November 1998 161: Total number of space walks performed from the ISS - over 1,015 hours 861,804: Pounds it weighs (390,908 kilograms) 2.3m: Number of lines of computer code used 17,239.2: Average speed - in miles per hour 91 minutes: Time it takes to orbit the Earth €100bn: The estimated cost of the station over a 30-year period, by ESA

The ISS, a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit, follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and MIR space stations, as the 11th space station launched into orbit by humanity.

It serves as a research laboratory that has microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in many fields including biology, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology.

The station has a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars.



The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2020, and potentially to 2028, when some Russian modules will be separated to form the OPSEK space station.



And the European Space Agency estimate that the cost of the station will be €100 billion over 30 years.

On November 2 last year the ISS marked its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation, and it was launched almost 11 years ago, on October 31, 2000.

At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth.

Flashes of lightening can be shown over the Pacific Ocean

The South American coast can be seen from the space station which travels at about 220 miles from the Earth's surface

The 29th expedition crew settled in to their new home for the next couple of months last week, with Mike Fossum commanding and being aided by Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov.



They will be up there, travelling about 17,000mph - meaning it takes about 91 minutes to orbit the Earth - until mid-November.

T he Expedition 29 crew which will continue to support research into the effects of microgravity on the human body, biology, physics and materials.



The trio took over from Expedition 28 last week, and Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan - who had spent 164 days in space - landed their Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft in Kazakhstan a few seconds before midnight on Friday.



The space station and its large solar arrays is the size equivalent of an American football field - including the end zones - and weighs 861,804 pounds (390,908 kilograms), not including visiting vehicles.



The complex now has more liveable room than a conventional five-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a 360-degree bay window.