Google Surveys Mars

Amateur astronomers will be delighted to learn that Google Labs has released a new application, Google Mars, today. A click on today's Google logo will take you to this interesting application, which resembles the Google Maps interface superimposed on the surface of Mars.

Browse the Martian landscape using the zoom or panning controls, or select from among three data views. Elevation provides a colourful relief map, generated from data collected by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter. Visible presents a mosaic of images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC); both from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. A third Infrared view is generated from data collected by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. For more information, see ZDNet's Google Blog.