NASA just switched on the High Definition Earth Viewing experiment, a live stream view of earth beamed directly from the International Space Station. See the view, hear the crew's radio communications—it's almost like being on board!
The experiment, which starts today and runs through October of 2015, will help determine how earth-facing cameras survive in the high-radiation environment outside the ISS. If it looks dark right now, that's either because the cameras have briefly lost contact, or the station's on the dark side of our planet. Hop over to ISS Tracker for real-time updates to see exactly where the station is positioned over earth.
GIF by Michael Hession