If you’ve ever played around on Google Earth, you’ve likely come across some beautiful vistas while looking for other things. Well, the wizards at Google decided to put those images to more esoteric use. Enter Earth View, a collection of breath-taking images of some of our planet’s most striking locations shot from heights we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. 1500 carefully-curated images can be downloaded, scrolled through, searched, or played as a slideshow (“Lean Back” mode). I highly recommend the latter. Put on some music that makes you happy, get yourself a soothing beverage, and let the pretty pictures go by.

If you are a Chrome user (and really why wouldn’t you be?), there’s also a free extension that will bring up a new Earth View picture every time you open a new tab. I’m really loving that, too!

Our planet is a remarkable place, and I’m thrilled to get to look at it from a new angle. I especially like how it turns even dangerous, violent places into soothing abstracts with no social inequality and no racial tension and no unkindness and no politics, nothing to distract us from our beautiful, beautiful shared home.