As you would probably expect from the space agency, NASA has always been at the forefront of visual technology. Back in 2017, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer for the first time broadcast a broadcast from the International Space Station live using 4K ultra-high-definition technology – the next standard for video.
The use of 4K provides incredibly sharp image quality with a horizontal screen resolution of up to 4000 pixels (the previous 1080P high-def standard’s horizontal pixel count was 1,920). The ISS’s high-def 4K camera has the ability to record up to 300 frames per second – compared to a luxury smartphone’s 60 frames per second – while the primary mirror is the Hubble Telescope, which uses the Telescope to record space images. and radiating it back to earth can collect about 40,000 times more light than the human eye. Using these technologies, plus ultra-high-definition equipment on other spacecraft, NASA captured hours and hours of 4K footage and presented a fascinating video gallery with immersive images, as well as the evocation of past events in high-definition definition versions. .
While of course you will only get the full 4K benefits if you watch such recordings on a 4K display, the videos are still attractive on standard screens.
Here’s a small selection of our favorite 4K space videos.
On April 17, 2016, an active region to the right of the sun released a center plane of the sun. This event was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft from NASA’s Living With a Star mission that has been observing the sun since 2010. This video is particularly special, as the torch is captured in various wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, which is usually invisible to our eyes, but is shown in various color-coded footage in Solar Dynamics Observatory images for easy viewing. (Each montage you see differently is captured in a different light spectrum.) The footage is accompanied by the aptly named “Collide” by Greg Lehrman.
The incredible phenomenon of the Northern Lights is something some of us can only dream of being happy to see in person. However, thanks to the UHD camera of the International Space Station, we can enjoy one of the best views of the planet from our own homes. This short video utilizes time losses fired from the International Space Station and shows the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis phenomena that occur when electrically charged electrons and protons in the Earth’s magnetic field collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere.
This video uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the moon to recreate some of the beautiful views the Apollo 13 astronauts saw on their voyage up the hill in 1970. These accelerated 4K visualizations show many different views of the lunar surface. , begins with an earth – the apparent sunset of the earth below the lunar horizon – and sunrise and ends with the time that Apollo 13 re-establishes radio contact with Mission Control after losing it when it was behind the moon.
The path of the free return orbit around the moon is also shown as the spacecraft started back to earth. It’s a fascinating look at the wonders that Apollo 13 astronauts have seen in real life. Music lovers can also watch the special version of the video, according to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” by the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, created as part of the celebration of NASA’s 60th anniversary.
This groundbreaking image at the time was shot in 2015 and comes from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which was recorded as part of a series of annual portraits of the outer planets of the solar system. The project was created to help current and future scientists see how these giant worlds have changed over the years. At the time, it revealed details never before seen on Jupiter, including a rare wave just north of the planet’s equator and a unique filament in the core of the Great Red Spot.
“To share the incomparable quiet beauty of our planet with all our fellow travelers on this, our Spaceship Earth,” Russian astronaut Sergey Ryazansky said of this video. He captured the footage in this montage with fellow ISS resident Paolo Nespoli of Italy and U.S. Commander Randy Bresnik. This 4K video, tuned to Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” performed by Disturbed, offers you fantastic footage of the Earth from the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit during August to October in 2017.
6. Ocean Moon Glint and City Night Lights in 4K UHD
This video contains time lapse images taken by NASA astronaut Jack Fischer of the International Space Station in 4K UHD. The video is about the moonlight of the Pacific Ocean and above the night lights from San Francisco, California, to Denver, Colorado. A moonlight occurs when light from the moon reflects diagonally from the surface of a sea or ocean and creates a rare glare of light, not something you see every day.
7. Europe from space in 4K
With this offer, NASA offers you the chance to tour Southern Europe within three minutes. Apparently, this is all the time it takes if you have a 4K camera that orbits about 250 miles around the earth. This ultra-high-definition video was recorded in August 2016 when the International Space Station traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers and had a view from above the west coast of France to the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria and southward to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.
This is a fascinating clip you can see to bring home the scale of the universe. On November 11, 2019 (11/11/19!), NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watched Mercury move across the sun. What’s fascinating is how small Mercury looks in the picture. Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, with a diameter of about 3,000 miles, but it looks like a marble in this video. The track rotates through the different wavelengths of light in which the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event.
9. A flight through the CANDELS Ultra Deep Survey Field [Ultra-HD]
This beautiful visualization takes us six billion light-years to traverse the CANDELS Ultra Deep Survey field to show the different galaxies and their three-dimensional distribution, although the distances for film purposes have been reduced. CANDELS is an abbreviation for the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey project, and it is one of the largest projects ever done with the Hubble Space Telescope.
10. NASA Thermonuclear Art – the sun in Ultra-HD (4K)
This absolutely enchanting video gives you about 30 minutes of footage of the solar surface. From the footage from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which monitors the star 24/7, these images are captured in ten different wavelengths, each helping to emphasize a different temperature of solar material. Look at the flow of particles called the solar wind, occasional eruptions of giant clouds of solar material called coronal mass ejections, and X-ray explosions called solar flares.
11. The Earth: 4K Extended Edition
If you can not get enough of the Earth, this elaborate version of ultra-high-definition views of our planet captured by NASA astronaut Jeff Williams during his mission to the International Space Station in 2016 is for you. It offers a full hour view from the ISS in which you can see the entire planet from 250 miles. Williams is an excellent choice for compiling his favorite footage – he has worked and worked on the ISS for more than 530 days.
12. 4K video of colorful liquid in space
Lastly a fun one from within the ISS itself. Astronauts at the International Space Station dissolved an effervescent tablet in a floating ball of water and captured images with a 4K camera. The Epic Dragon camera from RED, a digital cinema company, can capture a fantastic high frame rate and excellent high quality resolution, delivering incredible effects.