Blue Marble Earth Screensaver
The Blue Marble screensaver shows the entire sunlit face of the Earth, photographed today from a million miles away by NASA's DSCOVR satellite, drifting through the day's frames — a real-photo blue marble. It's free, key-less, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the Blue Marble screensaver works
The saver reads NASA's EPIC image list for the DSCOVR satellite, which sits a million miles out at the Earth–Sun L1 point and photographs the whole sunlit disc.
It builds each frame's image URL from the day's catalogue and preloads the set — around twenty views spanning the day.
The frames play in order so the Earth appears to rotate slowly beneath the camera, with a gentle drift.
It re-fetches periodically to pick up the latest day's imagery as NASA publishes it.
A worked example
You watch the real Earth turn — the Americas sliding into view, then the Atlantic, clouds and all — each frame an actual photograph taken that day from deep space, captioned with the date and the sub-solar point.
Settings & tips
- Refresh sets how often the day's frame list is re-fetched.
- Slow drift adds a gentle pan and zoom to the disc.
- Background sets the space color.
Frequently asked questions
- Are these real photos of Earth?
- Yes. They're actual images from NASA's DSCOVR/EPIC camera at L1, taken the same day, showing the whole sunlit Earth.
- Why doesn't it update every second?
- DSCOVR images the Earth a limited number of times per day from deep space, so the loop covers that day's frames rather than live video.
- Does it need a key?
- No. NASA's EPIC image list is public and key-less; the saver only needs an internet connection.
- How is this different from the Spinning Globe?
- The Globe is a rendered model you can spin; Blue Marble is a sequence of real same-day photographs from a satellite.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.