Google Earth - View The Earth From Space

Google Earth is the best way avalable to visually expore earth in detail. In a few seconds, you can fly all around the globe!

In version 4.2, a Sky tool was added for viewing stars and planets, similar to Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope. In version 4.3, a Street View that displays 360° panoramic street-level photographs for 40 US cities was added.

Google Earth is available for several operation systems such as Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, Linux, and FreeBSD.

From Wikipedia:

"Google Earth displays satellite images of varying resolution of the Earth's surface, allowing users to see things like cities and houses looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle (see also bird's eye view). The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest and popularity, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution.[8] Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Cambridge, Cambridgeshire include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses for some countries, enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location. For large parts of the surface of the Earth only 2D images are available, from almost vertical photography. Viewing this from an oblique angle, there is perspective in the sense that objects which are horizontally far away are seen smaller, like viewing a large photograph, not quite like a 3D view."