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Places I’ve been
0 countries
Distance
Tap the first point.
Tap a country for facts. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom.
· Imagery NASA
Earth Globe: an interactive 3D globe of the world
Spin a 3D Earth made from NASA satellite images. See where it is day and night right now, switch to the city lights at night, look up any country and measure the distance between two places.
Satellite
NASA’s Blue Marble surface image with the real day and night line for the current time.
Night
The whole planet at night: city lights from NASA’s Black Marble 2016 map.
Borders
A political map: every country in its own colour, with borders and names.
Places
Tap the countries you have visited and save a map image to share.
Distance
Tap two points to get the great-circle distance in miles and kilometers.
Classroom mode
Big, clean and full screen for a projector or smart board.
How to use the globe
- Turn: drag with the mouse or one finger. Arrow keys work too.
- Zoom: scroll, pinch, or use + and −. Sharper images load as you get closer.
- Find a place: type a country or city in the search box and the globe flies there.
- Country facts: tap a country to see its flag, capital, population and area.
Guides
Interactive 3D globe
What the globe shows, where the images come from and tips for teachers.
Night earth map
What NASA’s Black Marble shows and how the night map was made.
True size of countries
Compare any two countries at their real size, without map distortion.
Choosing a world globe
What to look for in a real globe for a child, a classroom or a desk.
Questions
Is this a live satellite view of Earth?
No. The surface image is a NASA cloud-free composite (Blue Marble: Next Generation, December 2004) and the city lights are NASA’s Black Marble 2016 composite. What is live is the day and night line: it is worked out from the current time, so the sunlit half of the globe matches right now.
Where do the country facts come from?
Population is the latest World Bank figure (2025). Capitals and areas come from Wikidata, checked against the World Bank list. Each fact card names its sources. See all sources.
How is the distance measured?
The distance tool gives the great-circle distance: the shortest path between two points over the surface of a sphere with the Earth’s mean radius (6,371 km). Real travel routes are usually longer.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The globe first loads small images (about 80 KB in total) and only fetches sharper ones when you zoom in close. Drag with one finger to turn it and pinch to zoom.
Can I use it in class?
Yes. Classroom mode makes the globe fill the screen with bigger text and no clutter, which works well on a projector or smart board. There are no ads and no sign-up.
What happens to the places I mark?
They are saved only in your own browser (local storage). Nothing is sent to us. You can remove them at any time.