oh oh oh oh oh SO COOL! Microsoft and NASA create detailed 3D Mars map

via wired.co.uk

(source: wired.co.uk )

Google’s interactive map of Mars might be impressive, but it only scratches the surface of Microsoft’s new Red Planet map, which lets you zoom in so far you can see the tracks left by the Opportunity Rover in 2004.

In collaboration with NASA, the new WorldWide Telescope map features the highest resolution images ever taken of Mars, with 74,000 images from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera and a further 13,000 taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Those happy snaps contain more than a billion pixels each.

Don’t worry about your Internet connection though; like Google Maps, they’ve been split into half a billion smaller images, stitched together into a 3D image of the map that loads progressively as you span from the Cydonia Region’s "Face on Mars" to the Valles Marineris.

The trade off is that the super high-res images can also be super slow, and you’re forced to choose between installing the hefty desktop application or using Microsoft Silverlight if you want to see it in your browser...."

read more: www.wired.co.uk

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