Our closest neighboring planet is entirely populated by robots, and is constantly under surveillance by a satellite taking pictures. And you can see it! NASA has released an interactive map of Mars created by CalTech that has an astonishing amount of detail. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been at work for 17 years photographing the planet, which gave us the 110,000 images used in the map. A choice of destinations at the bottom will lead you to the rovers, past and present, plus standout locations like Mars' biggest mountain, Olympus Mons. You can zoom in and out to see more detail. A hamburger menu on the upper right will toggle some neat features, like labeled names for the places you're seeing. Click those location dots, and you'll get information about the place names. For example, Pangboche is a crater named in 2006 for a village in Nepal. You can imagine the scientist who named it proudly honoring his hometown.
It's wild to see such a detailed map of a place that no one has ever been to. Gizmodo has more information about the project and warns us that the 5.7 trillion-pixel map may load slowly on older computers.
It's wild to see such a detailed map of a place that no one has ever been to. Gizmodo has more information about the project and warns us that the 5.7 trillion-pixel map may load slowly on older computers.
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