Built using 24 million satellite images from between 1984 and 2020 on April 16, 2021, 9:17 Bottom line: The new Timelapse feature comes as part of Google's biggest update to the Google Earth platform since 2017. It compiles satellite imagery from the past 37 years, allowing users on the web to travel back in time and unfold how the planet's surface and environment have changed between 1984 and 2020. From rapid urbanization, melting glaciers, and changing forests to crop circles popping up in the middle of a desert, the tool is meant to educate and inspire action globally for dealing with the challenges of mankind's growing footprint on Earth. Google and Pennsylvania's Carnegie Mellon University have worked together on Google Earth's new Timelapse feature to unfold nearly four decades of planetary change. For what many of us likely used to get a satellite view of our house when it first came out, the tool's biggest update since 2017 arguably makes it much more useful as it now gives a clearer picture of how environmental change has impacted Earth.