It’s worth cleaning off your monitor before you watch this extraordinary video — full-screen, of course — so there’s no dust or smudges interfering with your sense that you’re hovering over the glowing planet as it turns beneath you.
The video was stitched together out of NASA footage, and it’s the closest thing most of us will ever experience to being an astronaut, with a better soundtrack than the real ones usually get. (I assume. For all I know, space constantly emits the sounds of, like, classic Bowie, and the astronauts have decided to keep it to themselves. Jerks.)
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/5565696408_8819b64a61_z.jpeg?quality=75&strip=all&w=640)