Earth is a Internet launched Java 3D application that shows a 3D Earth, written in 2006.
Earth provides a realistic day/night view of the Earth, representing the selected date/time. The lighted area of the Earth is realistic for the time and seasons while the view of the Earth (snow areas etc...) is realistic for the specified month. Calculations for first/last light, sunrise/sunset are based on the specified date and the location of the mouse over the Earth's surface. Earth even has the ability to animate the current global cloud coverage. All time values are based on the user selectable timezones for any location on Earth. There is also local time at cursor location, which uses the timezone of the country pointed to.
There doesn't seem to be an application that provides this information in this combined format.
The Earth application also shows moving objects on the Earth's surface. It is planned to have this working with planOfile to give a realistic day/night background view for moving objects, particularly international flights. Having a visual indication of departure/arrival times (in relation to day/night) for aircraft is a bit easier than trying to work it out based on reading the times from the Internet and then trying to convert them to sunrise/sunset for another location on the Earth.
While Earth does zoom, it doesn't obtain more detailed background tiles. But now that NASA has released the Java version of World Wind, it might be worth while seeing if Earth functionality can be added to World Wind.
