You know it's not the same as it was 🎶 This image captured from the vantage point of the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 30 in 2012 captures the Earth’s surface and distant stars through a composite of 17 long exposure images. Although images like this may spark wonder and excitement for space exploration, they also serve a more scientific purpose. Regular photography of the Earth, known as Crew Earth Observations (CROs) plays a vital role in helping us better understand how our planet is changing over time. CROs record how our planet is evolving due to human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Crew members have been photographing Earth from space since the early Mercury missions beginning in 1961. The continuous images taken from the @iss ensure this record of over 1.5 million observations remains unbroken. Image Description: A composite of long-exposure images of Earth and stars. The bottom third of this image contains the crescent horizon of Earth’s surface with yellow auroras, blue oceans, and white storms visible in long horizontal streaks. The upper two-thirds of the image reveals rows of long blue-white star trails culminating in a point of origin near the center of the image. The background is primarily the dark blackness of space. In the top center of the image, a metallic grey and white portion of the ISS disrupts the natural patterns of the rest of the image with human-made artificiality. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit #NASA #Space #ISS #Earth #SpaceStation #Stars #Aurora #Art #Ocean #LongExposure #Light #HarryStyles