60 Amazing Space Videos to Watch

Here are 60 amazing space videos to watch. Selected from a number of different online sources, they are short and sweet. This collection of space videos is divided into 6 pages. Each page displays about 10 videos or so. Use the navigation pager near the bottom of each page to view all other pages.

A Space Trip You'll Never Forget

You might want to turn on the volume of your computer and watch this 4-minute space video in full screen. It'll take you on a breathtaking, virtual trip around the world. You'll see how beautiful the Earth looks at night from the International Space Station (ISS). The background music, "Walking in the Air" is a perfect match for this video. At 2:45 minutes, you'll see Comet Lovejoy (a rare sight captured from the ISS in 2011). See page 4 for more International Space Station videos.

Credits: NASA/ISS Expedition 30 Crew Members; Peter Auty & Howard Blake (Music).

Spectacular Northern Lights

Northern lights (a.k.a. aurora borealis) and southern lights (a.k.a. aurora australis) are natural phenomena characterized by colorful displays of lights in skies of the polar regions. They are caused by the interaction of charged particles originating from the Sun with the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field.

Here is a spectacular, time-lapse video of northern lights shot by Terje Sørgjerd in Norway. See page 3 for more aurora videos.

Credits: Terje Sorgjerd/TSO Photography.

Mind Boggling Sizes of the Largest Stars

How big is the largest known star? The answer might surprise you. This video compares the relatively tiny sizes of the Sun and its planets with the mind-boggling sizes of some of the largest known stars in the Universe.

Credits: ScienceMagazine.

Musings on the Hubble Deep Fields

In December 1995, astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny, dark patch of the sky to study it. They discovered thousands of distant galaxies in various stages of galactic evolution. In September 2003, astronomers pointed the telescope in a different direction. Once again, a very tiny patch of the sky that looks dark and empty from the Earth revealed about 10,000 galaxies dating back to the time when the Universe was just about 500 million years old.

Since these galaxies are about 13.2 billion years old, they might help us understand the structure and evolution of the Universe, the formation of galaxies, and our own origins. Here are a couple of cool space videos reflecting on the Hubble Deep Fields, and on the vastness of the Universe: -

Credits: Tony Darnell.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Credits: Tony Darnell.

The Pale Blue Dot

What does the Earth look like from the far end of the Solar System? In 1977 the Voyager-1 space probe was launched to explore the outer Solar System. It journeyed in space for years, and when it reached the far end of the Solar System in 1990, it turned around its camera and took a picture of the Earth from a record distance of 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). From that distance the Earth is barely visible and looks like a mote of dust or like a pale blue dot as shown in this picture: -

The Pale Blue Dot Credits: NASA/JPL.

In the following thought-provoking video, Carl Sagan's musings on the above picture point out the folly of human conceits, and the need to preserve and cherish the only home that we humans have. From the far end of the Solar System, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest, yet the whole of human history has occurred on what looks like a tiny mote of dust in the Voyager-1 picture. Everyone we love, everyone we know, and everyone we have ever heard of, has lived on this pale blue dot. Our Earth is a very tiny stage in the vast cosmic arena, yet it is the only place known so far to harbor life. A must-watch: -

Credits: CarlSaganPortal.

The Most Astounding Fact

The famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said, "We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." In the words of Brian Cox, a British particle physicist, "We are the cosmos made conscious, and life is the means by which the Universe understands itself." Scientists sometimes say that we are all made of stardust, or that the Universe is within us. Whatever are they talking about? Watch this video to find out what Neil deGrasse Tyson regards, "The most astounding fact about the Universe."

Credits: Max Schlickenmeyer.

The First Moon-Landing

On July 20, 1969 about 500 million people around the world gathered in front of television sets to wait for the first earthling to set foot on the Moon. Countless millions listened to the voices from the Moon on radio. Never before had so many people been attuned to a single event at the same time. Here is one of the most memorable space videos of that nail-biting event. At 7:02 minutes you'll see Neil Armstrong descending from the ladder of the Eagle Module to step on the Moon: -

Credits: NASA.

A Joyride on the Moon

This silent space-video shows Apollo 16 astronauts driving a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) on the surface of the Moon in April 1972. LRVs (a.k.a. moon buggies) were battery-operated rovers. They were used to increase mobility and make it easy to move around scientific equipment, conduct experiments, and collect samples from the Moon. Three LRVs are still present on the Moon.

Credits: NASA.

MSL Curiosity Rover's Mars Landing

Here is a realistic animation showing how Curiosity Rover landed at the Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. It also shows a realistic view of the rugged terrain of Mars. Curiosity Rover is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.

An exciting goal of this rover is to assess whether Mars ever had an environment that could support microbial life. It is investigating the geology, climate, and habitability of Mars. It has highly sophisticated scientific instruments for the collection and on-board analysis of soil and rock samples.

Another video on the next page describes the challenges of landing the rover on the surface of Mars.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Caltech.

Have We Stopped Dreaming?

When we landed on the Moon in 1969, space enthusiasts felt that we would be on Mars in another 10 years. That era of space exploration gave us something to dream about our future, but whatever happened to our dreams? Why did we stop going to the Moon? Why haven't we landed on Mars yet? Find out the answer in this moving video: -

Credits: Evan Schurr.

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