The amazing search engine, Google, keeps adding to their repetoire. Their newest addition is Google Mars, a Web browser-based mapping tool that gives users an up-close, interactive view of the Red Planet with the click of a mouse.
While Google Mars doesn't provide driving directions, users can see the planet in three different formats: The Martian elevation map is color-coded by altitude; the visible-imagery map shows the surface in black-and-white pictures; the infrared map indicates temperature, with cooler areas dark and warmer areas bright.
Users can also zoom in on any of the three maps to view geographical features such as mountains, canyons, dunes and craters. The maps also pinpoint the locations of unmanned space probes that have landed on Mars. The up-to-date maps even include the locations of the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have been exploring opposite ends of the planet since 2004 and are still on the move gathering data.
The Martian maps were made from images taken by the orbiting Mars Odyssey satellite and the Mars Global Surveyor satellite. And while there are any number of Mars images on the Web, the developers of Google Mars said this is the first time that members of the public can explore Mars on their own.
This is not Google's first exploration of off-earth worlds. Not too long ago, Google launched Google Moon, which shows the locations of all six Apollo moon landings.
No comments:
Post a Comment