The Most Accurate Map of Mars Ever
Department:
Mars
Teaser:
"Ever wanted to explore the surface of Mars? Now you can -- at least virtually -- thanks to a powerful camera aboard a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that has made the most accurate global map of the red planet in history."
Source:
SPACE.com Download time: Jul 24 2010 8:54 AM ET
Ever wanted to explore the surface of Mars? Now you can – at least virtually - thanks to a powerful camera aboard a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that has made the most accurate global map of the red planet in history.
A camera from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft captured nearly 21,000 images using its Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band infrared camera. The images were stitched into the new Mars map, which was posted online by researchers at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility in Tempe, Ariz.
Mars Odyssey's THEMIS observations began eight years ago, and since then, Mars Space Flight Facility researchers worked together with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to compile the images, patching them together to create the giant Martian map.…
See SPACE.com for links to further info.
Also see NASA JPL, the Planetary Society Weblog, and ScienceDaily.com.
